Party Pictures 11/18/04 - The 5th Annual "My Hero Gala," hosted by Aid for AIDS, The New York Botanical Garden's Rose Garden Dinner Dance

The 5th Annual "My Hero Gala," hosted by Aid for AIDS

Adriana Cisneros, Adriana Gonzalez-Bunster, Sandra Carros, Katie Rost, and Karina Correa-Maury

Consuelo Adler

Fabiola Beracasa and Veronica Hearst

They held the Aid for AIDS 4th annual “My Hero” award and Fall Gala last Wednesday night down at Capitale at 130 Bowery. The “My Hero” award honors men and women who have made “heroic” efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. This year’s award went to Paulo Robert Teixeira, AIDS Program Director at the World Health Organization.

Chelsea Clinton, Ian Klaus, and Adriana Cisneros

The non-profit provides free healthcare and donated medication as well as education to persons living with HIV/AIDS in Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean. The annual gala raises funds needed to procure life-saving drugs from patients, social workers and doctors in the US and Canada, distributing them to more than 1200 people living with AIDS/HIV in under-served nations.

Aid for AIDS also provides case management and referral for more than 500 immigrants living with HIV/AIDS in the New York metro area. Over the past six years, they have supplied HIV treatment valued in excess of $15 million. Aid for AIDS was founded in 1996 by Jesus Aguais, an AIDS educator at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. For more information: www.aidforaids.org.

This year’s Gala chair was Eugenia Maury Arria with “next generation” chair Adriana Cisneros. The organization’s Advisory Board includes Ambassador Diego Arria, Clarissa Bronfman, Adriana Cisneros, Carolina Herrera, Terence Riley and Angel Sanchez. The event was attended by a wide spectrum of artists, designers, patrons, AIDS activists and supporters including Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Alejandro Santo Domingo, Jackie Weld Drake, Rory Kennedy, Violy McCausland-Seve. Nan Richardson, Chelsea Clinton and Ian Klaus, and Ross Bleckner.

Maria Eugenia Arria, Terry Riley, Adriana Cisneros, Jesus Aguais, and Patty Cisneros

Marcia Levine and Sophia Vari

Nicholas Griffin, Adriana Cisneros, Chelsea Clinton, Ian Klaus, and Yann de Rochefort

Ross Bleckner and Bianca Jagger

John Bennett ans Patricia Cisneros

Joy Hendericks and Terry Riley

Maria Perdomo and Luca Santarelli

Terry Riley and Megan Riley

Sophia Vari and Fernando Botero

Adriana Cisneros and Patricia Cisneros

Photographs by Andrew H. Walker/PMc

The New York Botanical Garden's Rose Garden Dinner Dance

Kristin and Cynthia Kilbourne

Mrs. Morton and Philip Miller

Jean and Kimberly Putzer

On a Wednesday in late last September, they held the Rose Garden Dinner Dance at the New York Botanical Garden and honored Jane (Mrs. Thomas) Choate who has been a loyal and longstanding board member of the New York Botanical for nearly three decades. Mrs. Choate has been one of the core group of board members who helped change the course of the Garden over the past 30 year, guiding it to its current international acclaim in horticulture. Her involvement with the Patrons Program and the Annual Fund has brought many new audiences to the Garden and introduced the Garden’s important programs to new generations.

Cocktails were held in the Garden’s world famous Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, designed by landscape architect Beatrix Farrand and installed in 1988 through a generous gift by Peggy and David Rockefeller. The Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden celebrates the rose with more than 2700 rose plants of more than 260 cultivated varieties. Following cocktails, the guests continued on to the Garden Terrace room for dinner, surrounded by a seasonal display of gardens designed by Lynden B. Miller.

Mike Griffin, Molly Hart, Gregory Long, Jane Choate, Mrs. and Mr. Thomas Hubbard, Honore Wamsler, and Edie Kean

The Rose Dance celebrates the beauty of the rose and the proceeds from this gala event help to maintain and build the collection. The event attracts 300 members of the Garden’s extended family and raises more than a half million dollars to support the collection.

This year’s Honorary Chairmen were Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Hubbard and Mrs. and Mrs. Donald B. Straus. Chairmen were Mr. and Mrs. James Benenson Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Nolen and Dr. and Mrs. Karl M. F. Wamsler.