David R. Weinreb, CEO of The Howard Hughes Corporation, received The Charles Evans Award from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) at its Ninth Annual Fall Symposium & Luncheon “Hope on the Horizon” held at The Pierre on November 2nd. This year’s event welcomed over 400 guests and raised nearly $1.6 million for Alzheimer’s research.
Nine-time Emmy Award winner and ADDF Board member, Paula Zahn, hosted the inspiring event. Speaking to the audience, Ms. Zahn, noted “Alzheimer’s is increasingly becoming more common as the population ages, and more of us personally, will be affected by this devastating disease. With hope, and continued support of the science, we will get closer to a cure.” Ms. Zahn’s mother is one of the 50 million people worldwide with Alzheimer’s disease.
ADDF Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Leonard A. Lauder welcomed guests to the lunch and noted while there remains no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, there is hope in drug discovery. He later joined his brother ADDF Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Ronald S. Lauder to present the Charles Evans Award to David R. Weinreb, Chief Executive Officer of The Howard Hughes Corporation, for his leadership and outstanding support of Alzheimer’s research.
“David truly represents the philanthropic spirit of this award,” said Ronald Lauder. “Like Charles Evans, who this award is named in memory of, David’s perseverance and passion are based on a family connection to the disease. He does this for his family, but also for the millions of other families like his dealing with the hardships of this disease every single day.”
“It is a great honor to receive this award from a foundation solely committed to finding and funding the best ideas to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease. One of the key differentiators of the ADDF is that 100 percent of every dollar donated goes directly to research. It is important that we bring meaning to our suffering and work together as we strive to find a cure and rid this disease for future generations,” said Mr. Weinreb, who was joined by his father, Neil Weinreb, the primary caregiver for Mr. Weinreb’s mother who suffers from this disease.
A morning symposium, led by Dr. Howard Fillit, Executive Founding Director and Chief Science Officer of the ADDF, featured three distinguished panelists. Dr. Michelle Mielke, Professor, Departments of Health Sciences Research & Neurology, Mayo Clinic, and an ADDF-supported researcher, and Dr. Mark A. Mintun, Vice-President of Neuroscience, Eli Lilly & Co., discussed the role of biomarkers to accelerate drug development for Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Richard Isaacson, Director, Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic, Weill Cornell Medicine, also an ADDF-supported researcher, discussed the latest advances in prevention and the scientific evidence that supports a brain-healthy lifestyle.
Guests at the inspiring event included Bill Ackman, Iris Apfel, Carol Seabrook Boulanger, Renée and Robert Belfer, Laurie Dowley, Joyce B. Cowin, Iris Dankner, Bonnie Pfeifer Evans, Olivia Flatto, Mary-Ann Freda, Paul Fribourg, Stephanie Ginsberg, Nancy Goodes, Jane Hertzmark Hudis, Kiera and Chris Johnson, Yue-Sai Kan, Younghee Kim-Wait, Deborah Krulewitch, Ana Laspetkovski, Gary Lauder, William Lauder, Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, Laurence Leeds, Jr., Susan and Tom Lowder, Heidi and Tom McWilliams, Donald Newhouse, Tom Scanlan, Alice Shure, Sharon Sager, Connie Spahn, Vanessa Williams, and Wendy Wilshin.
Everyone who donated during the luncheon was eligible to win one of a range of gifts provided by the ADDF’s generous supporters, including Eataly, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., Hamilton Farm Golf Club, Jean Georges, the New York City Ballet, Nobu Fifty Seven, The St. Regis New York, and VHERNIER.
The evening’s generous sponsors included The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., Staples, and UBS; and Lilly & Co.
Founded in 1998 by Leonard A. Lauder and Ronald S. Lauder, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation is the only philanthropy solely focused on accelerating the development of drugs to prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease. Its venture philanthropy approach and scientific expertise allows the ADDF to support the most promising ideas around the world. Through the generosity of its donors, the ADDF has granted over $115 million to fund more than 585 Alzheimer’s drug discovery programs and clinical trials in 18 countries. To learn more, visit http://www.alzdiscovery.org.
Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) celebrated their 20th Anniversary Season with a cocktail party at the New York home of Jean Shafiroff. YAGP alumni dancers attending included Kimin Kim (Mariinsky Ballet), Dylan Gutierrez (Joffrey Ballet), Sasha De Sola (San Fransisco Ballet), Angelo Greco (San Francisco Ballet), Calvin Royal III (American Ballet Theatre) as well as Mariinsky Ballet’s Xander Parish,Viktoria Tereshkina, Anastasia Nuikina, Maria Khoreva, Daria Ionova, Yuri Fateev, and Joffrey Ballet’s Artistic Director Ashley Wheater.
The late-night soiree followed a performance of the Balanchine Festival at City Center and went into the wee hours with dancers and ballet patrons sipping champagne around her dining table.
Guest included YAGP board members Sergey Gordeev, Suzanne Hall, Judith M. Hoffman, Christina Lyon, Linda K. Morse, Richard Osterweil, Howard Paley, Elizabeth Papadapoulos, Susan and Greg Pappajohn, and John Sills as well as Edgar Batista, Delin Bru, Valentino Carlotti, Sue Dorn, Joanna Fisher, Marjorie and Ellery Gordon, Peter Hay Halpert, Cathy Hardwick, Sharon King Hoge, Michèle Gerber Klein, Aimee Maroney, Wendy Moonan, Cole Rumbough, Sana Sabbagh, Andrew Martin Weber, and Hal J. Witt.
Youth America Grand Prix is the largest global network of dance. YAGP fulfills its mission of dance education through scholarship auditions, master classes, alumni services, performances, educational and outreach activities. 2019 is YAGP’s 20th Anniversary season! Over the past 20 years the organization has provided opportunities to 80,000 dancers worldwide and have gifted talented young dancers more than $3.5 million in scholarships to leading dance schools and companies around the world.
Today, more than 10,000 young dancers – ages 9 to 19 – audition annually. 450 Youth America Grand Prix alumni are now dancing with 80 professional companies around the world. 100 of these alumni are soloists and principal dancers. The organization was founded by Larissa Saveliev, who trained at the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow and toured throughout the world, before defecting to the United States in 1995.
Leesa Rowland and Larry Wohl hosted their annual Halloween costume party with this years theme “A Ghostly Venetian Ball” held on October 25, 2018 at ‘The Colonial Dames of America’. All guests received invitations to ‘The Mount Vernon Hotel and Museum’ but little did they know event planner and designer Hank Stampfl of Revel Rouge had transformed the museum into a haunted house with actors, vintage decor and projections of paranormal activity as a welcome to the main event.
Chef Edouard Massih and his staff wowed guests with their vegan menu serving the famous ‘beyond meat’ lasagna and seasonal fall vegetables. For the sweet tooth lovers Clementine bakery produced a stunning five tier cake by Cris Longoria. Guests were wowed by a special performance by Boudoir LaFluer, Javiar Madrid and The Dex Experience with his Billboard hit single ‘Internash’ followed by a non stop dance party by DJ Danga.
Photographs by Sean Zanni /PMC (Alzheimer’s); Mark Sagliocco/PMC (YAGP); Toddshots (Rowland)
