Bob Schieffer to Face the Roasters at SBA's 18th Annual Event for Spina Bifida

Bob Schieffer to Face the Roasters at SBA's 18th Annual Event for Spina Bifida

Oct. 3 Event to Include Annual Car Raffle, Silent Auction

WASHINGTON, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Top CBS news veteran Bob Schieffer will take the hot seat during the 18th Annual Roast for Spina Bifida, the most common, permanently disabling birth defect in the U.S. affecting 70,000 men, women, adolescents and children. National media colleagues and political leaders will tap into Schieffer's 40-plus years of reporting and anchoring on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at the JW Marriott Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. The Roast was founded in 1989 by Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt, whose 24-year-old son, Jeffrey Hunt, was born with Spina Bifida. The roaster panel will be announced before the event.

"This is one of the most worthwhile annual events in Washington," said Schieffer, who started as a Fort Worth-Star Telegram reporter earning $115 a week, moved through presidential inner circles covering every campaign since 1972, and now sits at the interim helm of the CBS EVENING NEWS. "Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt are my good friends, but the work they have done for Spina Bifida makes them saints. I am truly honored to be the roastee, and roasters beware: remember, I get to speak last," he said.

Spina Bifida is a neural tube defect (NTD) that occurs in the first month of pregnancy when the spinal column doesn't close completely.

Jeffrey Hunt's godfather, nationally syndicated columnist Mark Shields, plans to emcee the Washington tradition with attendees including political, media and Fortune 500 company leaders. Honorary co-chairs are Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Ct.) and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D. (R- Tn.). The Roast's festivities will climax with the annual car raffle and accompanying silent auction.

Advance tickets for the 18th Annual Roast for Spina Bifida may be purchased through the SBA office at (800) 621-3141 or (202) 944-3285 or via e-mail: roast@sbaa.org.

About Spina Bifida

Approximately 60 million women of childbearing age in the U.S. are potentially at risk for having a pregnancy affected by Spina Bifida, which affects approximately 3,000 pregnancies a year and may occur with no prior family history.

Women of childbearing age can reduce their risk of having a child with Spina Bifida by taking 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid every day, since half of all pregnancies are unplanned.

Source: Spina Bifida Association

CONTACT: Lorelei Harloe, +1-703-362-2774, lh@lhprmc.com, for the Spina
Bifida Association

Web site: http://www.sbaa.org/

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