NEWS

On Thursday, June 4^th, Partnership with Children hosted its Annual Spring Gala, raising $1.16 million to support its social work services for more than 17,000 New York City school children. Mark Dowley, Chief Strategy Officer at MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated and Chairmanof DDCD & Partners, and Marianne Gambelli, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Horizon Media, were honored for their career and community leadership. Board member Kenneth Mortenson waspresented with the Anne Vanderbilt Award for Achievement for his distinguished service.   

Held at threesixty°, the nearly 500 guests included Gala Chair Linda Boff, Executive Director, Global Brand Marketing at GE, and Co-chairs Mel Berning, President and Chief Revenue Officer of A+E Networks and Shari Post, Vice President, Primetime Ad Sales, at NBC Universal. 

A highlight of the event was student speaker Ricky Sanders, who came to the stage to speak about the importance of Partnership with Children in his life. He commented that he was “one of the lucky ones as Partnership with Children changed the course of my life.” He is now on track to graduate from high school and will be the first male in his family to attend college. 

Additional highlights included a live auction with CK Swett, who raised over $100,000 in just five minutes from the generous crowd.  As the evening closed, Herve Alexandre, a New York City saxophonist and winner of multiple Apollo Amateur Awards, performed with The S.F. Crew. 

The Gala’s lead sponsors include Marty and David Hamamoto, NorthStar Realty Finance Corp., MacAndrews & Forbes, Royalty Pharma and Verizon Foundation.