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| The National Audubon Society hosted its fourth annual Women in Conservation luncheon at The Metropolitan Club. The group presented the distinguished Rachel Carson Award to environmental pioneers Laurie David, producer of Al Gore’s Academy Award-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," Deirdre Imus, founder and president of the Deirdre Imus Environmental Center for Pediatric Oncology, Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx and Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Emcee and 2004 Honoree Jayni Chase was joined by her husband Chevy Chase; Awards Chair Allison Rockefeller, Gloria Ruben of ER fame, Kalliope Karella, Jill Roosevelt, Cynthia Lufkin; Caroline Dean, Allie Hanley, Gillian Miniter, Alison Aston, Alexia HammRyan were on hand to fete the honorees. |
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| Lenox Hill Neighborhood House’s 6th annual Kids In Playland event, a festive party for children and adults, was held for the first time on the children’s play roof of Lenox Hill Neighborhood House on 331 East 70 Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues. Stilt walkers welcomed hundreds of guests to the Neighborhood House.
Magic Al and Laughing Pizza entertained the guests as they enjoyed a carnival of games and food. Face painting and hair beading tantalized the youngsters. Hot dogs, mini pizzas, cotton candy and juices were served. Funds raised will help children’s programs at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, the oldest and largest social and educational services organization on the Upper East Side. Entertainers besides Magic All and Laughing Pizza were Sasha the face painter, Penny England the stilt walker and Robert Carroll, the balloon artist. |
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| Kathy Angele and Eva Dillon were Chairs. Honorary Chairs were Alexandra Kramer and Julie Dannenberg. The Committee included Cricket Burns, Wendy Cebula, Jennifer Dillon, Ashley Dyson, Saskia Evans, Lara Glaizer, Stefani Greenfield, Cathy Grier, Blakely Griggs, Blair Husain, Julliette Janssens, Chrissy Jones, Caroline Lo Faro, Alysia Macaulay, Kelly Mallon, Jennifer Monaco, Jane Mount, Bevin O’Rourke, Marianna Petermann, Danielle Roberts, Farah Roessner, Dina Simonian, Maryela Schwartz, Mary Snow, Christine Cachot Williams, Christina Wood. Among the goodie-bag donors were J. Crew, Hasbro, Estee Lauder, Dozy Cuts, Krispy Kremes, TimeOut Magazine, Little Brown, and more. |
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| On a beautiful spring night in Central Park the Central Park Conservancy Playground Partners hosted the 7th Annual Playground Party at the historic Heckscher Playground. Gillian Miniter, Carol Herring, and Jennifer Yaffa – all with precious little ones in tow – were the co-chairs for the evening. The night was filled with magic, music and munchies for the nearly 1000 guests. The event raised $120,000 for the Playground Partners – a program dedicated to keeping Central Park’s 21 playgrounds clean and well maintained.
Attendees included; Carol Herring with daughters Ann and Lois, Jennifer Yaffa with daughter Lucy, Central Park Conservancy President Douglas Blonsky, Central Park Conservancy Women’s Committee President Nancy Paduano, Gillian and Sylvester Miniter with son Quint and daughter Serena, Other friends of the Conservancy in attendance were Karen LeFrak, Suzanne Cochran, Betsy Messerschmitt, Eleanora Kennedy, Susan Fales-Hill, Adelina Wong Ettleson with son Tyler, Christine Cachot Williams with daughter Allegra, Vicki and David Foley, Jessica and Ward Davis, Yildiz Blackstone and son Joshua, Suzanne Ircha, Nina Bauer, Veronique Pittman and Melania Trump with son Barron. |
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| Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library, at a ceremony held in the Celeste Bartos Forum of the Humanities and Social Science Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, presented Olga Grushin with the Library’s 2007 Young Lions Fiction Award.
Ms. Grushin’s first novel “The Dream Life of Sukhanov” is the story of Anatoly Sukhanov, Russia’s leading art critic who is plagued by the ghosts of his past and must confront a lifetime of compromise. The four other finalists for the award were Chris Adrian for “The Children’s Hospital,” Kevin Brockheimer for “The Brief History of the Dead,” Tony D’Souza for “Whiteman,” and Karen Russell for “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” The Award is the only major book prize ethat recognizes fiction by younger writers and includes a $10,000 prize. |
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Dr. Paul LeClerc, Kevin Brockheimer, Chris Adrian, Olga Grushin, and Tony D'Souza |
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| At the ceremony, Ethan Hawke, one of the founders of the fiction award, was joined onstage by actors Robert Sean Leonard, Martha Plimpton, and John Lloyd Young to read excerpts from each of the finalists’ works.
Born in 1971, Olga Grushin did her early schooling in Prague. She returned to Moscow in 1981, and later studied art history at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and journalism at Moscow State University. In 1989, she was given a full scholarship to Emory University. She has been a researcher and an interpreter at the Carter Center and an editor at Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Researach Library and Collection. Her short fiction has appeared in Partisan Review, The Massachusetts Review, Confrontation, and Art Times. This is her first novel. Grushin, who became a U.S. citizen in 2002, lives outside Washington D.C. with her husband and their son. |
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| Photographs by ©PatrickMcMullan.com (Audubon); Michael Di Vito (NYPL). |
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