6.14.12: Hot summer nights | New York Social Diary

Hot summer nights

Members of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, INC. New York Alumnae Chapter Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy.

On Friday, June 8, 2012 The Children's Storefront hosted its 8th Annual Parent Benefit Gala at Riverside Church. It was hosted by The Parent Advisory Committee, and the theme for the gala was "A Havana Night in Harlem." Storefront Trustee George Grumbach received the Trustee Award; Voza Rivers and The Harlem Arts Alliance, the Leadership Award; The Brick Presbyterian Church, the Bridget E. Wright Award; and The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, INC, NY Alumnae Chapter, Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy, the Community Empowerment Award. The Storefront's Young Professionals Committee served as Honorary Chair.

The Children's Storefront currently serves 174 preschool through eighth grade students. Now in its 46th year, the Storefront is strongly committed to educating children who face many obstacles. Eighty percent of the families the Storefront serve live at the poverty level. Graduates go on to attend excellent private, parochial and alternative high schools in far greater numbers than students from other schools in Harlem and the South Bronx.

Voza Rivers of Harlem Arts Alliance

Storefront Parent Carrie Morris presenting Brick Presbyterian Church's Reverend Doug King an award

Amy Wu, David Silverman, Chris Swinney, and Kristin Welton – Storefront Young Professionals Committee Members

Kim George, Blue Michel, Darryl T. Downing, and Sharon Morris – Harlem Arts Alliance

George Grumbach, Antoinia Grumbach, Cornelia McDougald, and Michael Williams, Storefront Assistant Head of School

Teneka Hardy, James Amodeo, Arlita Bascome-McCook, and Mel Chan

Sydney and Jermaine Perry of Sydney's Sweets

Storefront Parent Bridget Vicente

Wendy Reynoso, Storefront Head of School and Carol Ann Mercer of Brick Presbyterian Church

Peter Tanico, Maria Vecchiotti, and Dani Tanico

David Black, Anne Rivers, Michael Stubbs, and Bob Rylee

Reverend Michael Lindvall of Brick Presbyterian Church, Terri Lindvall and Brick Presbyterian Church parishioners

Will Platt and Jennifer Trian

Steve and Andrea Logan

Also on Friday, June 8th, over 200 young professionals took over the Children's Museum of the Arts (103 Charlton Street) for the Young Professionals Committee's 3rd Annual Summer Benefit, Your Night at the Museum. Guests were treated to lots of hands-on art-making activities, including screenprinting, stop-motion animation, clay sculpting, and more – all for a good cause.

Your Night at the Museum raised over $15,000, all of which supports Stripes, CMA's art program for families with children on the autism spectrum. Special thanks for event sponsors Everyday Health and Squarespace. Delicious food and drinks provided by Brooklyn Brewery, Champagne Henriot, Maison Remoissenet Père et Fils, Macaron Paris, Murray's Cheese, and Vitaminwater. For more information about CMA and the Young Professionals Committee, please visit www.cmany.org.

Alton Murray and Melanie Chow

Matt Singleton and Josh Weaver

John Murphy and Cassandra Kohilakis

Madlen Massarlian and guests

Stephanie Gallardo, Julieanne Alonzo, and Katelyn Platz

Conrad Benham and Li Jun Xian

Betty Chen, Annie Chang, Dorothy Walter, Gabe Rincon, Aimee Rincon, Anca Tohaneanu, and Nathan Saperia

Wendy Golder, Peter Desloge, Autumn Nowlin, Kelly Keelan, Melissa Dodson, Sam Corenzwit, and Ross Koller

Ken Rozanksy and Alice Higgins

Chad Kopp, Caroline Taggart, Jessica French, Elizabeth Morency, and Robert Guarino, Jr.

Priscila Roney, Omer Corluhan, Cristiane de Oliveira, Nachiketa Rao, Joe Amann, Julian Harper, Jonathan Tanenbaum

Brenda Wu and Linda Ma

Dorothy Walter

Caroline McAuliffe

The American Theatre Wing's Antoinette Perry Awards, known the world over as The Tonys, was held last Sunday night in New York.

Stewart Lane and Bonnie Comley

Judy Kaye

Lilla Crawford

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova

Cynthia Nixon

Kimberly Kay and Michael Cerveris

Elena Roger

Heather Hitchen

Taylor Lauderman

Neil Patrick Harris

Laura Bell Bundy

Manny Azenberg

Bernadette Peters

Harvey Fierstein

Constantine James Maroulis

Mandy Patinkin

Sheryl Crow

Celia Keenan-Bolger

Mary Yeager and John Lithgow

Josh Groban

Hugh Jackman and Deborah Lee Furness

Ricky Martin

Condola Rashad

Nick Jonas

Stockard Channing

James Corden

Tyne Daly

Mike Nichols and Diane Sawyer

Audra McDonald

Kelli O'Hara

Amanda Seyfried

Linda Lavin

David Bryan

John Stamos

Cecilia Hart and James Earl Jones

Ellen Barkin

Judith Light

Nina Arianda

Phylicia Rashad

Laura Osnes

John Larroquette

Candice Bergen

Ben Vereen

Matthew Morrison

Frank Langella

Nikki James

Prize4Life, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the discovery of treatments and a cure for ALS, held its 3rd annual “World Without ALS” Gala on Wednesday, June 6th at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. The evening, which featured a cocktail reception followed by dinner, a live auction and an awards ceremony, raised over $300,000 to go towards Prize4Life’s innovative $1 million prize fundraising platform, which awards researchers for groundbreaking discoveries.

Special guest speaker and auctioneer James Niven shared his personal experience with ALS, which his father, Academy Award winner, David Niven, suffered from, before hosting the live auction. Supernatural entertainer and mentalist Lior Suchard provided entertainment for the evening, performing a series of mystifying acts in front of a mesmerized audience.

The accomplished Merit E. Cudkowicz, MD, MSc was awarded with the Prize4Life Pioneer Award in Clinical Research, and Mackenzie Dutton, an extraordinary teenager from Andover, Mass., was honored with the Prize4Life Courage Award for her work to raise awareness of ALS. The young leader graciously took to the stage and spoke about how ALS had taken the lives of her father, grandfather and aunt, and she pledged to do everything in her power to continue the fight until a cure is found.

Jamie Niven, Jeff Arononwitz, Avi Kremer, Tammy Beltle, Bernard Ehmer and Greg Plowman

Her speech was warmly applauded by those including Prize4Life founder Avi Kremer, Benny Prizan, John and Nancy Frates, Gabi and Jennifer Hamani, Nathan Hevrony, Michael and Dennis Neveling, Dr. Tom Maniatis, Joshua and Eva Benaim, Dr. Robert Grant, Leonard Tow, Itzhak Gartenberg, Guy Yamen, Harriet Abramson and Robert Steven Kaplan.

Founded by Avi Kremer, who was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 29 during his first year at Harvard Business School, Prize4Life is a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the discovery of treatments and a cure for ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, by using $1M prizes to attract new minds and drive innovation. There are roughly 30,000 ALS patients in the United States, an estimated 600,000 globally and most people with ALS will die within 2-5 years. To date, there is no known cure for ALS.