About Us
The Queen B Foundation
Having grown up playing golf, Bennett and Brenten always envisioned a golf outing to raise money for ALS awareness and research to celebrate their mom, Ellen McConnell Blakeman who lost her battle with ALS in 2018. Two of the things that Ellen loved were hosting a party and playing a round of golf with her friends, making the Queen B Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic the best way to honor her. In 2021, the inaugural Queen B Golf Outing was hosted at Itasca Country Club in Itasca, Illinois. For 2022, the event will move to Scottsdale, Arizona, in partnership with OFFSEASON Apparel, where the Blakeman brothers now both reside.
Ozdinler ALS Research Lab
The primary beneficiary of the Queen B Foundation is the Ozdinler ALS Research Lab at the Northwestern School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. The lab is headed up by P. Hande Ozdiner, PhD. She has made remarkable discoveries in a career that has been dedicated to ALS research. Dr. Ozdinler was the first high-profile ALS researcher in the world to identify the importance of studying the mechanisms for deterioration of upper motor neurons in ALS patients, which study has now become one of the essential areas for focus among ALS researchers worldwide. Further, Dr. Ozdinler’s ALS research is done collaboratively with other research centers around the world. In December of 2018, the Ellen McConnell Blakeman ALS Research Fellowship was born- the Ellen Fellow for short. Funding this fellowship is the primary beneficiary of not only the Queen B Foundation but also A Long Swim.