A Big Finish for Long ‘Race to Erase MS’

“The Race to Erase MS” attracted hundreds of friends of L.A.’s Nancy Davis to Aspen over Presidents’ Day weekend for a round of activities that would have tried a triathlete.

Davis, a 35-year-old mother of three, pulled it off as her response to discovering that she has multiple sclerosis.

Though she had worked closely with her mother, Barbara Davis, founder of the Carousel Ball, this was Nancy Davis’ first solo flight as chairwoman of a major event. The goal was ambitious: $1 million for MS research.

“It won’t be official for a few days but I think Nancy raised close to $1.3 million,” said her mother.

The funds will be used to create a neurology program at the Aspen Valley Hospital and for research at the Rocky Mountain Multiple Sclerosis Center under the direction of Dr. Jack Burks and the research program of Dr. George Ellison at UCLA.

The three days of festivities began Friday afternoon as guests checked into the Little Nell Hotel, owned in part by Marvin Davis. Those planning to race in the Celebrity Pro Am the next day got racing pointers from ski champions Kiki Cutter and Billy Kidd.

That evening everyone showed up in Western duds to two-step for MS at a country-Western party at the Little Nell, where an auction emceed by George Hamilton and Jimmy Connors, with a lot of help from rapper Hammer, got the fund raising going.

Italian designer Valentino was a surprise guest. “I came to Aspen for the first time because there was no snow in Gstaad, (Switzerland), and I found all this,” he said.

On Saturday, everyone was on the hill to watch the Pro Am, which featured celebrities including racing driver Danny Sullivan, Christopher Reeve and Nicolette Sheridan, actress Susie Blakely and comedian David Brenner. Ann Johnson, Tina Brackenbush and Sheldon and Christy Leonard were among the Angelenos.

Brandon and Gregg Davis skied on the Davis Dynamos team with Austrian ski champion Bernard Knauss and took first prize. A ski volleyball match followed.

The Saturday evening black-tie gala saw the ballroom at the new Ritz-Carlton hotel transformed into a winter fantasia of icicles and snowflakes. The most appealing thing in the silent auction was a black Vichon Frisee puppy that Kirk Kerkorian bought for $25,000.

Though the evening was a late one, everyone was back on the hill early Sunday morning to watch the Chrysler World Champion Slalom Finals, the snow volleyball finals and Jimmy Connors’ exhibition tennis.

By then even Nancy Davis admitted she was feeling a little tired. “I did an active weekend like this because I wanted to present MS in a realistic way, not the worse-case scenario. I’m an active person and I wanted to show that and make a statement.

“The most difficult thing was getting people to have the confidence to give you all that money when you haven’t done an event of this type before.” (Davis succeeded in selling 30 $25,000 corporate sponsorships and secured a patron’s sponsorship from Paul Marciano of Guess.)

“It’s an exhilarating feeling,” Davis continued, “because everything I could have possibly wished it to be fell into place.”