My heart skipped a beat when news came of the devastation from the Texas floods. As the mother of four children, I can’t imagine the heartbreaking pain to the families of the victims lost at Camp Mystic and the neighboring “Hill Country” around the flash floods.
Sadly, Dick Eastland, the director of the camp for decades, was swept away, too, along with 27 campers and counselors; 5 campers and one counselor are still missing.
With our Chefs of the Hamptons event on July 17 at Sí Sí at EHP Resort & Marina in Easthampton, we decided we must help!
It’s almost too hard to imagine the agony of the survivors.
I read a firsthand experience written by a journalist whose family literally floated away with their home down the river. I almost couldn’t catch my breath as I read the author describing her floating and holding on for life to the branches of the trees as they were breaking off — I felt like I was there with her and in some way we should all be there with them to help as best we can.
We held a press conference on the steps of Southampton Village Hall to say we will be donating money from our Chefs of the Hamptons event to the Salvation Army, which is already in Texas, helping the survivors. As fate would have it, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, was walking down Main Street and donated $10,000!
We must do something and so we are! When you buy a ticket on danstaste.com/events/chefs-of-the-hamptons, a portion will be donated to the Salvation Army.
As life is, joy follows sadness, and I had a joyous time going to Rick Friedman’s enormously successful Hamptons Fine Art Fair in Southampton and then to Sag Harbor for the powerful and critically important Bay Street Theatre Gala, where they were raising money for its many impactful programs and shows.
As I entered Rick’s enormous tent, I met Naguib Sawiris, a doctor turned real estate developer and CEO of Ora World Puerto Rico. He has the passion, vision and financial resources to build a massive development on waterfront property in tax-free Puerto Rico.
The three buildings he is developing will have apartments overlooking the ocean, ranging from $3 to $11 million, depending on the size, all with superb services.
More to come on his vision.
Then, Co-Chairman of the Bay Street Theatre board Lynn Mestel invited me to the Bay Street Theatre Gala. It began at the wildly popular Le Bilboquet restaurant, and then we walked down the block to the theatre, where there was a unique presentation of awards to honorees, the extraordinary Mala Sander, Christie Brinkley and Donna Karan by the brilliant actor Richard Kind, a Bay Street Theatre board member.
Richard Kind is an award-winning actor on stage, television and the big screen, and a longtime benefactor of the Bay Street Theatre and the Hamptons community.
I was delighted to chat with him before the show, and there’s something warm and engaging about him that made me smile!
I also chatted with the other honorees of the night, including the iconic Donna Karan, a fashion designer extraordinaire and humanitarian bringing artisans’ work from Haiti to the American market, helping to enrich the artists’ lives.
On the other side of the dining room were the other honorees, including the extraordinarily beautiful actress, writer, model and entrepreneur Christie Brinkley and the spectacularly stunning and successful real estate broker Mala Sander of the Corcoran Group. It was an intimate setting to chat informally.
The evening’s highlight was an energetic and stunning well-informed auctioneer who got everyone in the theatre bidding — they raised more money than ever before!
I am so grateful to Bay Street theatre board member Keith Green for introducing me to Lynn Mestel, my neighbor in nearby Quogue.
The theater is a critical institution that has been led for decades by the talented Executive Director Tracy Mitchell and brilliant Artistic Director Scott Schwartz.
Congratulations!
What a week it was!
