Party Pictures 4/6/05 - Say Yes to Education; Municipal Arts Society’s Urbanists Party; American Cancer Society's Mother of the Year luncheon

Say Yes to Education

Cindy Hsu, Chuck Nice, Allison Weiss, Sabina Forbes II, and Fabian Basabe

David Simms

More than 450 guests attended the Say Yes to Education (“Say Yes”) “school” themed benefit dinner at Gotham Hall to inaugurate the organization’s Harlem chapter three weeks ago.

Founded in 1987 by financier, George A. Weiss, Say Yes is an academic intervention program with chapters in Philadelphia, Cambridge, and Hartford. They’ve chosen 400 kindergarteners in five Harlem public schools who will be supported through their schooling and given full scholarships for advanced education upon graduation from high school.

George A. Weiss congratulates Joelena Fuller

Guests included Allison Weiss, Adrian Lorimer, Debbie Weiss, Sabina Forbes, Fabian and Martina Basabe, CBS newscaster Cindy Hsu, Arthur Levine, President of Columbia University’s Teachers College, Donny Deutsch, CNN Crossfire’s Joe Watkins, John K. Castle, Caroline Waxler, Stanley S. Litow, President of the IBM Foundation, Allan Hassenfeld, Anka K. Palitz, Linda Argila, Tantivy and Tom Bostwick, Susan Danilow, of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, Virginia B. Clark, Cliff Viner, and Co-Chairs Cathy and Marc Lasry, Caryn and Craig Effron, Lolita Jackson, Lisa and Richard Perry, Tamara and Malcolm Robinson, Deborah Miller and Bill Zabel. Dinner was served on red lunch cafeteria trays, with appetizers including mini-peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bake sale goodies for desserts. Students from the Philadelphia, Hartford, and Cambridge programs were also in attendance. A raffle was held for two tickets to the Putnam County Spelling Bee.

Mr. Weiss congratulated the graduates of his programs and acknowledged their hard work and perseverance. It is this group of students, Mr. Weiss assured his guests, who has given him a much greater gift than he has given them.

Speaking about the Harlem program, where students are currently in kindergarten, Mr. Weiss stressed the wonderful educational, social, and medical support these students are receiving from partners such as Columbia Teachers College, who is providing everything from the space to house the project, to staff and accounting services; Bingham McCutchen who has offered pro-bono legal advice; IBM Corporation which will provide reading labs with bilingual software; K.I.D.S. will offer students books and clothes; and Harlem Hospital is giving the students free healthcare.

This event raised over $1.8 million for the new Harlem chapter, a $60 million program to which Mr. Weiss has personally donated $20 million.

Say Yes to Education (Say Yes) is a sponsorship and academic intervention program that works with inner-city students. Say Yes has helped over 400 hundred students in Philadelphia, Hartford and Cambridge realize their potential to go to college and now the program is expanding to Harlem. Say Yes is committed to awarding last-dollar scholarships for post-secondary education on the condition that the students graduate from high school. To learn more go to: www.sayyestoeducation.org.

L. to r.: Stella Poco; Allison Weiss and Cliff Viner; Philadelphia student Joelena Fuller.

Debbie Weiss, George A. Weiss, and Adrian Lorimer

David Folk, Mark Lasry, and George A. Weiss

Michael Pereira, Seher Sidandara, George A. Weiss, Steve Soares, and Stella Poco

Sabina Forbes II, Allison Weiss, and Linda Argila

Liz Saunders, George A. Weiss, Lydia Bravo, and Melissa Katz

Say Yes supporters

Photographs by Shawn Ehlers/Wire Image

Municipal Arts Society’s Urbanists Winter Party

Matt Hanely and Yasmina Jacobs

Baroness Sheri de Borchgrave, Mona Wyatt, and Regan Lynn

“New York at Night,” The Municipal Arts Society’s Urbanists Winter Party of 2005 was held in the aerie of one of the city’s newer architectural gems, the Magic Room of the LVMH Tower at 19 East 57th Street, designed by Pritzker-laureate Christian de Portzamparc and erected in 1999. The 30-foot-high space occupying the top two floors of the tower offers amazing views of Manhattan and New Jersey.

Rahul Baig, Christine Cachot Williams, and Yorgos Scarpidis

MAS Chairman Philip Howard with daughter Charlotte Howard

The MAS Urbanists is the junior arm of The Municipal Art Society, a group of young professionals passionate about urban planning, contemporary architecture, historic preservation and public art. So the Magic Room was the perfect place to contemplate their mission. Founded in 1893, their mission is simply to promote a more livable city.

It was a lighthearted evening with lofty ambitions. Christine Cachot Williams, James Deutch, Susan Shin, Justin Rockefeller, Whitney Potter, Dennis Paul, Jennifer Spiegel, Michael Arad, Jennifer Roesner, Rahul Baig, Ruth Bradley, Thomas Ellis, Janine Clemow, John de Neufville, Sarah Cornell, Coralie Charriol, Nicole Fusaro, Lori Greenberg, Brian Hartmann, Katherine Jordan, Regan Lynn, Joyce Misrahi, John Moore, Edgar Nelms, Marc Norman and Gregg Solomon were among the hosts.

MAS Chairman Philip K. Howard presented an idea for a design competition for the old Farley Post Office at 32d Street. “The half facing Madison Sq Garden will be the new Moynihan Train Station, but what to do with the huge Western half, itself a 4 acre footprint? A new opera house? A museum? Wal-Mart? Trump something? The MAS Urbanists will run a competition for ideas and designs. We'll have a jury, a winner and an exhibit of the best of entries.”

Guests included Mona Wyatt, Nicole Nehrig, Karla Farach, Baroness Sheri de Borchgrave, Sarah Cornell, Jade Cantor, Ian Shapolsky, film critic Neal Rosen, Jane Johnstone, Roger Webster and Charlotte Howard, and Christopher London.

Support for the evening and items for the silent auction came from LVMH, Moet Chandon, Marc Jacobs, Johnnie Walker Green, Circ vodka, Tanqueray Ten, Dwell Magazine, Fresh cosmetics, Morgans Hotel New York, Sephora and Neuhaus chocolates, American Ballet Theater, Asia de Cuba and Tavern on the Green. The caterer was Entertaining Ideas and Kevin Calica was the event designer.

Did you know that it is the Municipal Art Society that sponsors the Tribute in Light projects, which sends the two giant beams of light shining upward from Battery Park City every September 11th to honor all those who were lost on 9/11, as well as those who worked so hard to get our city through its greatest trial?

Christine Cachot Williams and James A. Deutch

Bobette Cohn, Selma Nasser, and Marc Gabelli

L. to r.: Christine Cachot Williams, Coralie Charriol, Regan Lynn, Susan Shin, Karla Farach, and Mona Wyatt; Yvonne Briese and Heather Bennett.

Ian Shapolsky and Mona Wyatt

Regan Lynn, Jane Johnstone, and Jennifer Roesner

Coralie Charriol and Susan Shin

Andy King and Christine Cachot Williams

Joyce Misrahi and Edouard Misrahi

Jennifer Roesner, Michael Arad, and Regan Lynn

Roger Webster and Laura Lee Ross

Photographs by Chris London

American Cancer Society's 10th Annual “Mother of the Year” Award luncheon

Gabriella Greig and Julia Randall

Sue Bloomberg, Dana Reeve, Paula Zahn, Anne Ford, and Charlotte Ford

The American Cancer Society held its 10th Annual “Mother of the Year” Award luncheon at the end of February at the St. Regis Roof. We were in Los Angeles for Oscar weekend and therefore missed it. Which, by the way, is why you’re hearing about it so much later.

Diana Feldman, Libby Pataki, and Dana Reeve

Wendy Hornick

This year they honored Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve in recognition of her outstanding achievements, foremost as a great mother to their 12-year-old son Will, and as a strong active and inspiring voice in favor of critical health issues and medical research funding.

New York State’s First Lady Libby Pataki, Honorary Chairman and the Society’s very first Mother of the Year Award recipient, led the tribute to Mrs. Reeve. Joining her were past recipients Paula Zahn (with her mother, two-time breast cancer survivor Betty Zahn, as well as Sue Bloomberg, former wife of our Mayor and mother of their daughters; and sisters Anne and Charlotte Ford.

The benefit’s co-chairs included Brenda Johnson, Marlena Greig, Wendy Leigh Hornick and Anna Moffo Sarnoff. Among the guests attending were Sale Johnson, Friedericke Biggs, Topsy Taylor, Mary Richardson Kennedy, Deborah Roberts, CeCe Black, Eleanor Revson, Heather Randall with her daughter Julia; Barbara Tober, Hilary Califano, Lisa Hyde, Kathy Sloan, Sharon Baum, Catia Chapin, Joy Rosenthal, Ralph Destino, Richard Feldman as well as many friends of Dana and the Society. Not to mention Mr. Feldman’s wife Diana who puts this thing together every year with her signature enthusiasm.

Wendy Hornick surprised guests by providing mini plastic purses filled with Jordan almonds as “escort bags” for the ladies and “escort pucks” for the gents. The reportedly “most beautiful table settings” included napkins tied with white and hot pink ribbons and centerpieces that looked like mini-gardens by Wolfgang Design, accentuated by “darling stuffed toys” and Yardley’s Piccadilly Circus product line. After the luncheon, the stuffed toys were donated to the children at the Ronald McDonald House and the flowers went to Memorial Sloan-Kettering – all in honor of Dana Reeve.

It was a cold and snowy day at the end of February (it was sunny and warm in L.A.), but Dana Reeve warmed everyone with her warm acceptance speech. The luncheon ended promptly at two (another winning factor for this busy crowd), and everyone left with an awesome gift bag that Diana Feldman had a big hand in putting together, and there were some who even left with fabulous prize raffle winnings. They also raised more than $150,000 for the American Cancer Society’s programs in research, education, advocacy, and patient and family services.