On June 7, student ambassadors, families and many ELA supporters gathered at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris for the 18th ELA Ambassador Award ceremony.
Ambassadors, athletes, artists: all committed to ELA!
Over 250 ambassadors from all over France and numerous personalities from the world of sport and entertainment attended the event. Among them were Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as well as loyal ELA supporters: Caroline Bourg, Frédéric Bouraly, Jérôme Fernandez, Valérie Gauvin, Pascal Gentil, Priscilla Gneto, Michaël Gregorio, Floria Gueï, Béatrice Hess, Cécilia Hornus, Muriel Hurtis, Marie-Hélène Lentini, Maëlle, Madeleine Malonga, Mentissa, Sandrine Martinet, Antoinette Nana Djimou, Charlie Nune, Florent Pagny, Pihpoh, Sandrine Quétier, Thierry Ragueneau, Arnaud Sadowski, Sophie Thalmann, Titoff, Grâce Zaadi and Zinédine Zidane.
A unique ceremony
It opened in song with Mentissa and Maëlle, both former contestants on “The Voice”.
Sandrine Quétier, host and honorary member of ELA, acted as master of ceremonies, giving the floor to the speakers. Crystelle Cottart, President of ELA, thanked all the students, pointing out that this year, more than 3,300 schools had mobilized and 570,000 students had put on their sneakers for the children of ELA: ““You have shown us once again how much you can mobilize for this fight that ELA is waging”.
Céline, mother of Louis and Augustin, then shared her family history marked by metachromatic leukodystrophy, with the clinical trial Augustin underwent in Milan when he was barely a year old. Today, Augustin is “doing very well and living his life as a little boy”. This good fortune was made possible by ELA’s unstinting support for medical research for over 30 years.
Sophie Thalmann, Miss France 1998 and honorary member of ELA, talked about her commitment to helping families for over 25 years. On May 25, she went to Lafitole to support Mathéo and his family as part of the “Mets tes baskets et bats la maladie” operation. Mathéo should have benefited from an innovative gene therapy treatment, but the American laboratory producing the treatment abruptly withdrew from the European market a few days before the operation. To prevent this from happening again, his mom Élodie has launched a petition supported by ELA.
“I’m counting on you to ask those around you, your loved ones, your parents, to […] sign this petition to make the biggest noise!”
His appeal has been heard, for at the time of writing, the petition has exceeded 50,000 signatures on the change.org website.
Guy Alba, founder of ELA and President of ELA International, recalled the existence of two treatments for metachromatic leukodystrophy and cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy. This success has been made possible by the constant mobilization of students since 1994.
“You have a share in this therapeutic success in your sneakers!”
Let’s go for the ELA 2024 team!
So for the next “Mets tes baskets” campaign we need to do faster, higher, stronger, like the athletes who will be taking part in the PARIS 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For the launch of this ELA 2024 team placed under the sign of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, we are lucky to be able to count on Tony Estanguet, President of the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2024, Florent Pagny and Zinédine Zidane, both honorary members of ELA.
They were interviewed by real little reporters Augustin, Aylin and Faustine, pupils at Collège Darius Milhaud in Sartrouville (78), which has been awarded the “Génération 2024” label.
“Paris 2024 is at ELA’s side to ensure the success of the Mets tes baskets operation,” declared Tony Estanguet, announcing at the same time the Génération 2024 label for the 2023-2024 campaign.
During the interview, Florent Pagny recounted his encounter with ELA in 1998, following a letter from Francine, mother of Jérémy, who suffers from leukodystrophy. It was a heart-rending appeal that got the ball rolling.
It was Zinédine Zidane, captain of the ELA 2024 team, who announced the objective: “To help the ELA team grow, we first have to set ourselves an ambitious goal. For the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, I’m launching a new challenge: 1 million students in sneakers to walk together 1 billion steps for sick children!”
He invited all participants to take the first steps in the Parc de la Villette!
With a team like this behind it, ELA can overcome any obstacle!