TBCF Golden Gala 2024
Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation Golden Gala 2024 was held on Saturday, October 5, at the Montecito Les Belles Fontaines Estate of Alastair and Ann Winn, co-hosted with their daughter Amanda and her husband Travis Twining.
The TBCF team asked the more than 300 attendees to wear gold – the internationally acknowledged color of pediatric cancer awareness. The formal black tie-ish event saw women in gorgeous gowns with matching Jimmy Choo’s; the updated e-vite’s caveat mentioning the event was outdoors on grass and cobblestones having possibly escaped their attention. The men wore gold sequined tux jackets alongside Andrew Firestone, the ever-dedicated emcee-auctioneer to nonprofit events.
Firestone provided the welcome remarks, followed by newly-appointed Executive Director Brittany Avila Wazny, from her prior position as Sr. Development Director. Nikki Katz (née Simon) – founder of TBCF in 2002 – gave a brief talk on the organization and Wazny’s appointment. Honorees were Danny Molina for the Pay It Forward award, and Sunstone Winery and winemaker Brittany Rice for the Humanitarian Award. Molina and Rice gave their thanks for the honor. With dinner delayed, Firestone shared about the work of the TBCF and started the live auction, raising over $35,000. He did the Ask post dinner, walking the guest area to see the paddle number. Firestone: “This is the highest Ask I have ever been requested to do, let’s start at $21,000.” To which in five minutes he had five donors. The final total he raised with all levels of the Ask was $171,000. The winning raffle tickets were drawn by Wazny and her event chairs Jamie Hansen, Giana Miller, and Angel Speier, oddly with one of the TBCF event team winning the trip to the French Riviera. Guests were invited to stay on for dancing.
The Event Committee members were Brittany Arntz, Taylor Fuller, Sheela Hunt, Kerry Kelly, Terre Lapman, Gary Lapman, Debbie Neer, Stacey Polo, Susannah Rao, Lisa Solana, Brigitte Welty, and Ely Wolfe.
Santa Barbara Symphony Principal Pianist, Natasha Kislenko, showed a video and performed a live piano tribute to her son who passed from cancer.
The Golden Gala’s Presenting Sponsor is Earl Minnis, with a Gold Champion Sponsorship provided by Michael and Kathy McCarthy of Nurture Foundation. Additional sponsors include Virginia Benson Wigle, Alan and Mary Jane Miller, Sansum Clinic (now Sutter Health), the Leifur Thordarson Living Trust, AIMdyn Inc., Ray and Michelle Avila, James and Vanessa Bechtel, Tom and Misook Burk, Kate and Art Coppola, J. Paul Gignac, Martin and Kerrilee Gore, Herring Imming Family Law, Pati Kern and Andrew Pfeffer, Diane Kees, Peter and Kathryn Martin, Pacific Premier Bank, Studio Engineers Inc., Mark and Nicole Romasanta, Village Properties, Arlington Financial/Michael Yang and Wells Hughes, Martin and Gina Bell, BrightStar Care, Cheryl DeSimone and Scott Goodman, Hearts Aligned, Sarai Anderson at Morgan Stanley,
and Trudi Timm.
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