Staff Report
The fourth annual Pink Banana Ball on Saturday will celebrate the life of Emily Ransom in true cowboy-couture style.
The fun begins at 6:30 p.m. with live music by the Beaters, casino games, silent and live auctions, mechanical bull riding, appetizers, dinner, ice cream, libations, boot scooting and mining for gems.
The event benefits Emily’s Power for a Cure, which funds research into neuroblastoma and supports families and children being treated for the disease. The foundation was begun in 2006 by Emily’s parents, Jonathon and Wendy Ransom.
Each year 600 to 700 children are diagnosed with neuroblastoma in the United States. Five children in the Chattanooga area are actively fighting this disease. In the past four years, four children from Chattanooga have died. The survival rate for high-risk neuroblastoma is 30 percent, a figure that has remained almost the same for 30 years.