With Fashion Week parties starting tonight, the Super Bowl viewing parties on Sunday, and Super Tuesday parties after that, we’re about to enter the first big party week of the year.

It couldn’t have arrived sooner. The month of January is usually sleepy, but this year we haven’t even had a snowstorm to celebrate, and the falling Dow Jones average has done nothing to lift our spirits.

We are ready to party, and our city is ready to accommodate us.

One of the hot spots tonight will be the Puck Building, where the United Jewish Appeal Federation of New York will hold its third annual “Generosity” event for Jews in their 20s and 30s. The event’s 750 tickets sold out two weeks ago, which shows that the New York federation is doing well at diversifying its aging donor pool.

“My cell phone is ringing off the hook with people I haven’t spoken to since elementary school, begging me to get their friends tickets,” the manager of the event, Michelle Waranch, who works in the Emerging Leaders and Philanthropists division of the federation, said. “All of our major donors are calling to get their kids and grandkids in the door.”

The leaders of the event’s committee include a law student, Aaron Zises, a teacher, Abby Levin, a hedge fund associate, Pamela Wohl, and two commercial real estate professionals, Sarah Mohr and Dean Matus.

One reason the ticket is in such demand is that Natalie Portman is the event’s honorary chairwoman. However, she’ll be appearing at the event only in a video message (she’s working on a film in Los Angeles, the federation said yesterday afternoon). The daughter of Harvey Keitel and Lorraine Bracco, Stella Keitel, does plan to attend in the flesh.

The event will mark the first time the federation uses the Text-To-Pledge platform of Sophist Productions. The platform will provide attendees the option to send donations and messages through their cellular phones. The texts will be vetted before appearing on several large screens at the event.

“The committee for the event really wanted to bring a new face to the organization, and we felt that if this technology existed, we really had to pounce on it,” Ms. Waranch said. “Pledge cards on tables are obsolete.”

The idea has won the support of more established donors at the federation, several of whom have agreed to match the Text-To-Pledge proceeds dollar for dollar. They are Howard and Janet Kagan, Steve Lefkowitz, Daniel Och, and Andrew Suzman.

“These people just really believe in what we’re trying to do with Generosity, to engage young people,” Ms. Waranch said.

With gray-haired lawyers and bankers just as glued to their handheld devices as their children, the Text-to-Pledge technology has broad appeal and seems bound to become a popular feature of fundraisers. At an all-ages event in June for the One Family Fund, which gives aid to victims of terror in Israel and is not affiliated with the federation, the Text-to-Pledge platform raised $330,000.

The Generosity event, which will also feature photo booths and music by DJ Big Rich, has so far raised $35,000 in sponsorships, and about $150,000 from ticket sales.

An Event Where Guests Enjoyed Their Stay

RELATED: Photos from the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism Benefit

The fact that fund-raising events take place at hotels is, most of the time, of little consequence to the attendees. Not so Tuesday night at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, where one honoree was the hotel itself, another was the hotel’s owner, Joshua Muss, and most of the attendees held jobs in hotels around town.

The event also honored Marty Markowitz, for promoting Brooklyn tourism, and a 45-year veteran of the hotel industry, Michael Leven, for taking a leading role in providing equal opportunities to the disabled and to seniors.

The organization doing the honoring was the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, which provides in-school and on-the-job preparation for careers in hospitality and tourism to 1,000 students at 10 New York City public high schools, including its own school at Erasmus Hall. Several students attended the event, helping to run the silent auction and pass out the awards.

The money raised — not fully counted at press time — will be deposited in an account at the Fund for Public Schools to fund college scholarships for these students and professional development for teachers.

“What amazes me is that these kids learn how to talk, how to dress, how to interact with all kinds of people,” Bunny Grossinger, who learned the hotel business at age 22 after marrying into the family that owned the famed Catskills retreat, Grossinger’s, said.

This was one group that appreciated the friendly bartenders, attentive waiters, and chefs who prepared a buffet that included paella, fajitas, fried plantains, and penne pasta. This was also a group that knew about the hotel’s high occupancy rates, the amazing views of Lower Manhattan available in the hotel’s Concierge Lounge, and the plans for a Morton’s Steakhouse to open in the hotel next fall.

agordon@nysun.com