Together We Can

What a difference a year makes!

Last year’s guests at the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation’s annual Gold Ribbon lunch were sheltering from the pouring rain under a large tent erected on the main lawn at the Biltmore.

This year the 378 supporters of the 7th annual event, who raised around $250,000 for the nonprofit, were gathered avoiding the blistering sunshine and heat for the Together We Can-themed campaign.

The popular bash, co-chaired by Eileen Dill and Brigitte Welty, and emceed by Sean Kelly, who also acted as the auctioneer for items including a week’s stay in Costa Rica, a 22 karat gold ring from Montecito bling king Daniel Gibbings, which was snapped up for $3,000, a stay at Mexico’s Riviera Maya, and dinner for ten cooked by local culinary whiz Michael Hutchings in the bidder’s home, which went for $3,500.

Youth philanthropists Isa Mireles and Talia Gerstenfeld spoke of how they raised funds for Teddy Bear with the school friends, and the Heart of Gold Award went to the Nurture Foundation, founded by Michael and Kathy McCarthy.

The Humanitarian Award went to Jim and Vanessa Bechtel, who moved to our Eden by the Beach 15 years ago, and the Play It Forward accolade was given to the Marchiano Family, whose 13-year-old daughter Melinda was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma 12 years ago.

She is now cancer free and working at the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks teaching dance to middle and high school students after graduating from Pepperdine in Malibu.

“It was like being in freefall without a safety net,” said her mother.

There was also personal testimony from the Miller family whose son, Owen, now in kindergarten, was diagnosed with Wilms’ tumor a year ago and was treated at Cottage Hospital for eight months. His treatment ended in June.

Junior Spirit of Fiesta Paloma Valenzuela showed her stylish flamenco moves to wrap the event, whose supporters included executive director Lindsey Leonard, Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin, Shaun and Carla Tomson, Kevin and Katie Frank, Holly Murphy, Das Williams, Ricardo and Dinah Calderon, Donna Barranco Fisher, David Edelman, Jeff and Margo Barbakow, and Diana MacFarlane.

More than 190 children have been served this year.

L) Mark and Sheela Hunt, Gail Cooley, Angelina Speier, Katie Mohun, Susan Jordano, and Leanne Wood at the annual TBCF luncheon (photo by Sarah Duenas)