The Brooklyn Museum honored Altria Group, Inc., in recognition of its important, longtime support, at its annual fund-raising Ball, Thursday, April 27. Jennifer Goodale, Vice President of Contributions, accepted the Museum’s highest honor, the Augustus Graham Medal, on behalf of Altria Group, Inc. Joe Amrhein, founder and director of the Pierogi gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was presented with the Museum’s first award for outstanding leadership in the arts in Brooklyn in honor of the vital role he played in the creation of Brooklyn’s thriving gallery community.

Immediately following the Ball, for the first time ever, the Museum hosted an After Party with live and silent auctions featuring works by William Wegman, Kehinde Wiley, as well as several emerging artists. Christie’s provided the auction services.

Co-chairs for this year’s Ball, were Stephanie and Tim Ingrassia and Danny Simmons. Serving as Vice Chairs for the Ball were Constance and Henry Christensen III, Saundra and Don Cornwell, Elissa and Edgar Cullman, Jr., Barbara and Richard Debs, Cheryl and Blair Effron, Arline and Norman Feinberg, Barbara and Dick Moore, Bruce Ratner, Theodore P. Shen, Tracey and Phillip Riese, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin, Diane and Joseph Steinberg, and Barbara and John Vogelstein.

The After Party, the first in the Museum’s history, was co-chaired by Richard and Ayanna Wayner and was sponsored, in part, by TRACE Magazine. Vice Chairs for the After Party included Andrew Cohen, Carla Shen and Christopher Schott, Kehinde Wiley, Claude Grunitzky, and Nicola Vassell.

Two weeks ago in the historic Great Hall, four esteemed individuals were honored by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. for their contributions to the American Experience.

The Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards are given annually to a select number of Port of New York and Ellis Island immigrants or their descendants. This year they were presented by the Foundation’s Founding Chairman Lee Iacocca in an 11:00 a.m. ceremony hosted by Ernie Anastos of WNYW-TV Fox 5, with remarks by Lynn Scarlett, Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior, at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

Shelly Lazarus, Frank McCourt, Madeleine Albright, and Tommy Lasorda

The 2006 honorees were:

GOVERNMENT SERVICE: Madeleine K. Albright – 64th Secretary of State of the United States, she was the first woman Secretary of State and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States government. Born in Czechoslovakia, she and her family came to the United States in 1948.

THE ARTS: Frank McCourt – Born in Brooklyn to Irish immigrant parents, he was raised in desperate poverty in Ireland, an experience he so movingly described in his Pulitzer Prize winning memoir, Angela’s Ashes. His mother entered America through Ellis Island.

BUSINESS: Shelly Lazarus – Listed in Fortune Magazine’s annual ranking of the 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business since its inception in 1998, she is Chairman and CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, the firm where she has spent most of her three decades in the field of advertising. She is the granddaughter of Ellis Island immigrants.

SPORTS: Tommy Lasorda – Baseball’s most popular ambassador, he entered the major leagues as a left-handed pitcher with the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers but is best known for his extraordinary 20-year career as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. His father came to America through Ellis Island.

The Ellis Island honorees were presented with a framed copy of the original ship’s passenger manifest documenting the arrival of their family in America, obtained from the database of the American Family Immigration History Center® at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and online at www.ellisisland.org. The database contains the ship passenger records of the more than 25 million people who entered through the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1892-1924. Forty percent of Americans have family immigration records in this database.

The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1982 to raise funds for and oversee the historic restorations of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, working in partnership with the National Park Service/U.S. Department of the Interior. In addition to restoring the monuments, the Foundation’s endowment has funded over 200 projects at the islands.

Last Wednesday night at the Rainbow Room, the Women’s Board of the Boy’s Club of New York honored Hillie Mahoney for her lifetime of service to the organization which was holding its 71st Annual Spring Dance and fundraiser. Harkening Hillie’s beloved Palm Beach, there were palm fronds, orchids and exotic flowers everywhere, thanks to Andrew Pascoe’s lush arrangements.

Mrs. Mahoney, a Women’s Board founder and a longtime member, helped to shape and strengthen the philanthropic work of those women who raise funds to support The Boy’s Club’s educational, mentoring and recreational programs that change the lives and futures of inner-city boys.

Event chairmen were Linda Hickox, Jay Keith, Calvert Moore, and Patricia Patterson. Vice chairmen were Mary Davidson, Rachel Hovnanian, and spring dance honoree Elaine Langone.

Mike Carney, a Boy’s Club Trustee, and his band provided the music while The Boy’s Club Jefferson Park Band surprised the guests with Stevie Wonder and James Brown tunes, along with the fancy footwork; and they paid tribute to Mrs. Mahoney singing: “It Had To Be Hill.” Her son, Bob Merrill, a jazz vocalist and trupeter crooned his mother’s favorite song, The Gershwins’ “Love Is Here To Stay,” followed by Palm Beach song stylist Pat Cook. The Wathne Sisters created tote bags, trimmed and lined in Lilly Pulitzer fabric for the ladies, and umbrellas in navy blue with lime green Boys’ Club logos for the men.

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