The
Friends of New Yorkers For Children (NYFC) hosted the Sixth Annual
Spring Dinner Dance—New Year's in April: A Fool's
Fête on April 15, 2009 at the Mandarin Oriental and raised
over $380,000 to benefit youth in foster care in New York City. Dayssi
Olarte de Kanavos served as honorary chair and Allison Aston, Marisa
Brown, Joy Bryant, Lydia Fenet, Rory Hermelee, Julie Macklowe, Susan
Shin, Vanessa Weiner von Bismarck, and Shirin von Wulffen served as
event chairs. Partnering with New Yorkers For Children for the first
time, The Halcyon Company served as Lead Sponsor of the event and was
joined by Pink Tartan as Sponsor. Additional support was provided by
Bally, Ben & Jerry's, Burberry, Dior Beauty, Frederic Fekkai,
Peter Harf and Tina Harf, Hautelook.com, Hugo Boss, and Christine Schwarzman
and Stephen Schwarzman.
Special guests at the event included ten young people in foster care
who are leaders in New Yorkers For Children programs. The young people
in attendance were dressed by Pink Tartan while Dior Beauty and Frederic
Fekkai provided hair and makeup styling.
The Fool's Fete silent auction was the most successful to date
and raised more than $60,000 to support New Yorkers For Children. The
silent auction included unique items such as two tickets to the Terminator
Salvation premiere in London with a two-night stay at the Blakes Hotel
London, two round-trip, transatlantic business elite Delta Air Lines
tickets, tickets to see Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and a meet-and-greet
with the host, and products from Gucci, Prada, Valentino, Burberry,
Missoni, Zac Posen, Bally, J. Mendel, Rachel Roy, David Yurman, and
many others.
A Fool's Fête is the major annual fundraising effort of
the Friends of New Yorkers For Children, a group of prominent and dedicated
New Yorkers who support NYFC's efforts to help youth in foster
care in New York City. Since its founding in 1996 and with the help
of donations and fundraising efforts like A Fool's Fête,
NYFC has been able to establish itself as an invaluable resource for
these young people through signature programs such as the NYFC Guardian
Scholars Program, the NYFC Youth Advisory Board, and the Back-to-School
Package Program.
Additional notable guests included Derek Anderson, Andre Balazs, Byrdie
Bell, Daniel Benedict, Fabiola Beracasa, Maggie Betts, Jeísa
Chiminazzo, Robert Buckley, Jamie Burke, Alina Cho, Bob Colacello,
Common, Cat Deeley, Gabby Karan DeFelice, Poppy Delevigne, John Demsey,
Tommy Dunn, Selita Ebanks, Marjorie Gubelmann, Zani Gugelmann, Josh
Hartnett, Jack Huston, Joshua Jackson, Genevieve Jones, Toby Kebbell,
Carson Kressley, Diane Kruger, Victor Kubicek, Stephanie LaCava, Leigh
Lezark, Kevin Liles, Ashley McDermott, McG, Bonnie Morrison, Tinsley
Mortimer, Kimberley Newport Mimran, Oluchi Onweagba, Olivia Palermo,
Zac Posen, Brian Reyes, Hilary Rhoda, Erica Rivera and Geraldo Rivera,
Coco Rocha, Emmy Rossum, Euan Rellie and Lucy Sykes Rellie, Maggie
Rizer, Rachel Roy, Amy Sacco, Andrew Saffir, Lauren Santo Domingo,
Eugenia Silva, Arlenis Sosa, Hana Soukupova, Tara Subkoff, Serena Williams,
and Rachel Zoe.
