Laid back poolside gathering raises $1 million for Caron Renaissance
Tags: Caron Renaissance, Donad Trump, Jon Secada, Jose Lambiet's Page2Live, Mar-a-Lago, Petra Levin
| Saturday 27 February 2010 4:20 pm
Welcome to the fifth annual Caron Renaissance gala! (Click on the photo for Michael Price's gallery)
Petra Levin, the chairwoman of Friday’s fifth annual Caron Renaissance gala, said the economy forced her to think outside the box.
How would she attract people to Palm Beach’s Mar-a-Lago willing to pay between $1,000 and $500 for a charity dinner on one of the busiest gala weekends of the year?
“I figured I’d make it less formal than the average Palm Beach gala, and more laid back,” Levin, a former Miss Germany, said during Friday’s wingding.”I thought that’d bring back the husbands, who no longer like the pomp and circumstance by the middle of the season.”
And then, she reached out to Miami singer Jon Secada, who performed for a hour.
Result: Levin had 300-plus helping themselves to fine foods around the pool, then moving to the grand ballroom for Secada’s show.
And by the time the receipts were tallied, the Boca addiction treatment center Caron Renaissance was $1 million richer — money that’ll go mostly to pay for rehab for those who can’t afford it.
Check out the guests by clicking here or on the photo.
Tiffany Marks and Simon Issacs make the oddest looking couple!
Jill Silverberg & Deana Love - Yuck, cover up your winter white skin or go get a spray tan. Better yet, wear something approp. for the season!
Sally Narwid - tone down the spray tan/get a different color foundation.
Seriously, these people need stylists BIG TIME!
It’s always good to help raise money for the needy. These people are doing some good for which I thank them.
Dear Jose, read about the gala and that funds would go to help hose who need treatment who could not otherwise afford it…not true, it seems…my son needs help and we cannot afford any treatment centers so he took the initiative and emalied their site on the weekend, Sunday, and followed up with a phone call on Monday when they take calls….that number is: 561 241-7977…apparently there is no free help, according to the person who answered the phone and the site had also said that an adviserr would get back to the respondent, my son, within 24 hours…this never happened…sounds like the Plam Beachers think there money is going to charity to help those who cannot afford it but apparently, the Caron Renaissance, is not using the money that was raised for this purpose…feel bad because i got my son’s hopes up and then what i relayed to him through reading your column turned out to be not true…please email and let me know if they are going to use the money they received to help those in financial need and to whom i can talk to expedite the process, if they are going to do what they said as was reported in your column…thank you…having been a community news reporter many yers ago, i enjoy reading your column and thnk u help a lot of people by getting the truth out there
Fred, I am sorry and surprised to hear of your son’s experience in contacting Caron Renaissance. As a scholarship recipient myself, I can assure you that Renaissance most certainly does use donations culled from the annual gala, as well as other donations, to fund treatment for those of us who cannot afford it. I hope by the time I have read this posting from you that your son has entered into treatment, if not at Renaissance, then somewhere else, and has begun the difficult but worthwhile journey to recovery.