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.
An Uplifting Night
Who can sell 500 balloons for $100 a piece in 10 minutes? Try the chairman and chief executive of Saks Fifth Avenue, Steve Sadove.
Mr. Sadove, the honoree at the Women In Need gala last Tuesday said he would match all gifts up to $25,000 from balloon-buyers. The result: The nonprofit organization raised $150,000 for its summer camp program, even though it ran out of balloons.
It’s rare to see such an instantly successful “ask” at a gala, but the Women In Need gala this year was just that — a rare, instantly feel-good, do-good kind of night.
“The crowd is up 50% this year over last year,” the emcee of the event, ABC anchor Deborah Roberts, said. “That means 50% more beautiful people and 50% more dollars.” The need in the city is greater, too, she said, with 18% more people in shelters than a year ago.
The gala proceeds — more than $1.5 million — will enable Women In Need to do its work of helping homeless women transition to permanent housing and find jobs to support themselves. Women In Need has found that 95% of its clients are still in their permanent housing two years after their placement.
“This is an organization with a great track record as a solid partner for us in our mission,” the New York City Commissioner of the Department of Homeless Services, Robert Hess, said.
Loretta Gaillard is a graduate of Women In Need. From the podium at the Pierre Hotel, she described how the organization helped her cease her substance abuse and train for a career. She lives in a two-bedroom apartment where she has made a home by putting up family pictures and magnets on the refrigerator. On May 4, she will celebrate her one-year anniversary at the Care for the Homeless agency as a health educator and counselor for HIV test patients.
“My daughter Brittany is a healthy, happy, independent, and smart young lady and she has been a positive role model for me. I owe this to WIN,” Ms. Gaillard said.
The event also introduced children who live in Women In Need shelters, including this year’s winner of the Peter Jennings Prize, Juana Mateo, 12. Her winning poem starts with her dream of a place with “much milk and honey” and “no hunger or pain.” It continues:
But where o where is that land for me to find?
Unfortunately it only exists in my mind.
But, I hold out, and believe and continue and seek,
That beautiful refuge reserved for the meek.
My mind is the place where this haven exists it seems,
I look forward to the day I can step out of my dreams.
