More than 300 people attended JCCA’s annual Celebration of Hope: A Gala to Benefit Children and Families at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 18, 2016. The festive event raised more than $700,000 to help the 16,000 vulnerable, abused children and families served each year by JCCA, one of the nation’s oldest child and family services agencies.
According to Ronald E. Richter, CEO, who marked his first year as CEO at the gala, “We honored three outstanding individuals who exemplify courage and resilience, and demonstrate how JCCA repairs the world child by child.” Honorees included a successful fashion consultant who was taken care of by JCCA in his early years, a foster mother of medically fragile children and a social worker who enables vulnerable Jewish children to grow and thrive.
One of the highlights of the evening was Tony Award Winner Joanna Gleason’s song “Lullaby.” She dedicated it to the “beautiful children JCCA serves.”
Added Barbara Salmanson, President of the Board, “JCCA offers stability to help our clients transform their lives. In everything we do, we are guided by the Jewish mandate of tikkun olam – the responsibility of every person to make the world a better place.”
Also in attendance were: Peter and Daun Hauspurg of Eastern Consolidated, and longtime JCCA Board members; Cynthia Germanotta, President of Born This Way Foundation (founded by Lady Gaga); actor Chris Sarandon; noted JCCA Board members Stanley Barshay, Martin Rosenman and Andrew Sommers; Father John Duffell; and real estate leader Eugene M. Grant and his wife, Emily.