Out & About
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Nine women from New Canaan, Conn., left 27 children (and their husbands) at home to attend the Women in Need fundraising dinner Tuesday night at the Pierre Hotel.
Their all-female table was an unusual sight at such an event, which is a typical couple’s night out for a certain set of New Yorkers and Connecticut Yankees.
But the women – led by Women in Need board member Eileen Thomas – wouldn’t have it any other way. This was a night to celebrate how women support each another, and how one women filled organization helps homeless mothers and their children get back on their feet.
What makes this event special is that many of the women and children the organization supports are in attendance. One such woman, Rochelle Williams, told her story at the podium of finding and holding onto a permanent home. Oddly enough, it was the men in the room who cried as they listened. The women leaders of the organization – board members include Gillian Miniter, Susan Rudin, Joan Weill, and Leila Straus – were more inclined to be proud, to see the tremendous strength that Ms. Williams possesses.
The speech earned a standing ovation, but perhaps Ms. Williams’s most cherished token of the evening was the beautiful flower centerpiece she took home. “I’m going to put these on the table. I love flowers; they’re all over my home,” Ms. Williams told me.
There was one man terribly missed at the event: Peter Jennings. Until his death last year, he had for many years served as master of ceremonies (his widow, Katherine Freed Jennings, is a board member). Women in Need’s executive director, Bonnie Stone, told of how he would spend time with the Women in Need clients at the event to make sure they felt comfortable.
To honor Jennings’s commitment to children, this year the organization started an essay contest for children, ages 9 to 12, living in the Women in Need shelter in Brooklyn. The winner of the contest will receive the Peter Jennings Prize: A Child’s View, which includes a cash award and a library of children’s books from Random House.
