”March comes in like a lion …” the old adage goes, and our in-box is filled with pride: so many good people supporting so many good works! Even as the newspaper shows us the scars, we say hakuna matata!
Don’t worry! Celebrate the once and future kings and queens of philanthropy. Can you feel the love tonight? Put on your mane, check out your cubs, and join us down by the watering hole for something wonderful and occasionally wild.
“Raising our Voices” for Teach With Africa—A truly moving cultural exchange occurred when students from LEAP charter schools in Johannesburg and Cape Town were invited to perform at the third annual Teach With Africa benefit at the St. Regis Hotel. The organization works to address issues in South Africa by sponsoring multi-disciplinary teams of educators, mental health professionals, and MBAs focused on social entrepreneurship to schools, and by bringing students and teachers to share their experiences with their counterparts in the U.S. The result was an evening of unexpected power and delight, as Vernon Bush from the Glide Memorial Choir and emcee Hooman led the audience, prayer-meeting style, in song, raising desperately needed funds (over $100,000 had been raised as of this printing) for the transformative work of education in a country still feeling the effects of apartheid. The evening, enthusiastically co-chaired by Amy Schoew and Kristina Pollack, welcomed Karen Clopton, Ruth Dewson, Jane Blumberg Goldberg, Heidi & Edward Hugo, Steven Lurie, Rev. Cecil Williams & Janice Mirikitani, and many more into the circle of learning, raising spirits, consciousness, and funds along the way.
Burberry Evening to Benefit Tipping Point—Supporters of the Tipping Point Community, the innovative grant-making organization that fights poverty, got the message when the rain came falling on their latest fundraiser—after all, it was a shopping night at Burberry, purveyor of raingear to Queen and Hermione Granger. And shop they did, encouraged by hostess Sloan Barnett and the Burberry staff, who had actually participated in volunteer work alongside Tipping Point grant recipients earlier in the month. With spring shipments of the fashion-forward Prorsum line beckoning in pistachio, butter, and bubblegum, fashionistas could up their fun and feel-good factors in equal measure. Raindrops were falling on the heads of Tipping Point boosters Sobia & Nadir Shaikh, Erin Glenn, Norah & Norman Stone, Katie Schwab (affianced to Matt Paige, not future father-in-law Ken, as I erroneously reported last month, with apologies), newlyweds Marissa Mayer & Zach Bogue, and Becca Prowda with organization founder/CEO/hubby Daniel Lurie. The evening proved a spendthrift sartorial success. Burberry donated a diluvian thirty percent of the evening’s proceeds right back to Tipping Point, much more than a drop in the bucket to help keep local families safe, supported, and economically sustainable.
Hearts After Dark for SF General Hospital—Pam Baer and Ellen Magnin Newman have thrown their hearts into raising awareness and funds for San Francisco General Hospital. For the past five years, they have hosted the Heroes and Hearts Valentine’s Luncheon for 860 of their closest friends under a tent in Union Square. They commissioned and auctioned off those artist-embellished heart sculptures around town for “the General,” too. But this year, eager to get younger people involved, they hosted a rocking evening party the same day as the luncheon. Throw in an ’80s cover band, give away custom Ed Hardy tees, mix up some Pometinis, set up the candy cart—and watch the twenty-, thirty-, and forty-somethings eat, greet, and make sweet talk. In between sets, revelers were able to learn about the essential work of the city’s only public hospital with a Level 1 Trauma Center, and look at a scale model of an expanded hospital. A party heart-y crowd including John Newman, Dr. Jennifer Brokaw & Dr. Allen Fry, Sasha & Matt Bainer, Keylee Sanders & Chuck Stumpf, Staci & Jamie Slaughter, Charles Zukow, Keena & Linda Turner, Jennifer Hagan, and the perfectly surnamed Nate & Kelly Valentine joined a diverse, dedicated, and delightful group of givers to make the event the First Annual Hearts After Dark. And what about the events’ founders, who had been there since early morning? Youngest-at-heart Ellen Newman quips, “This has gone so well, maybe next year we could get people to come for a breakfast, too.”
What else were the party animals up to? Well, dinner with Boaz Mazor, an evening with John Waters, the American Heart Association’s Celebration with Heart Wine Gala, a Paint the Town Red Launch Party (to benefit relief in Haiti)—a warm up for the big event on March 6—and more than we could ever squeeze 
into our social safari. But as long as everyone is participating, and making our charities charge ahead, the circle of (social) life continues.
Jennifer Raiser is more of a leopard than a lion.
