Gloria Estefan, Pitbull to Appear at Benefit Event for Paralysis

Music and sports are coming together in a major way at the upcoming 38th Annual Great Sports Legends Dinner. Presented by The Buoniconti Fund, an organization in Miami, Florida, working to find a cure for paralysis, the event will honor legendary athletes across disciplines. Ne-Yo is set to perform, while Miami native and “I Know You Want Me” hitmaker Pitbull will be presented with the Buoniconti Fund Award. Gloria Estefan, a fellow Miami native and longtime supporter of the Fund, will be the emcee.

Among the athletes being honored are Pro Football Hall of Fame member and Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan, Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer Missy Franklin and first WNBA President and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Val Ackerman. Phil Collins and Julio Iglesias are among the other artists who’ve been honored at the gala.

[RELATED: Gloria Estefan Will Receive an RIAA Icon Award at Upcoming Ceremony]

Pitbull has performed at the Buoniconti Fund event numerous times. Estefan is an advisory member of the Fund. She first started working with the Fund in the 1990s following a devastating car accident that left her with a cervical vertebrae fracture that she made a full recovery from.

“The 38th installment of the Great Sports Legends Dinner boasts a spectacular line-up of sports champions and honorees who are as committed as we are to standing up for those who can’t,” Buoniconti Fund President Marc Buoniconti said in a press release. “I have never been more excited about the future of The Miami Project’s research and discoveries and thanks to the funds raised at The Great Sports Legends Dinner, we will be able to take another step forward to find a cure for paralysis and other neurological diseases.”

The Buoniconti Fund is the fundraising arm of The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the Miller School of Medicine, which is described in a press release as, “The world’s premier spinal cord injury research center targeting traumatic spinal cord and brain injury and other neurological disorders and diseases.”

The fundraising dinner will take place on October 16 at the Marriott Marquis in New York.

Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Latin Recording Academy