This week is all about gratitude and the art of giving and the highlight of the week was our event at the British Consul-General Chris O’Connor’s residence in Hancock Park, on Thursday evening.
I’m happy to say it was a huge success thanks to all the people involved. The night honored Dame Joan Collins, Lisa Vanderpump and Audley Harrison for their commitment to charitable organizations throughout their careers. It was a beautiful balmy evening with twinkling lights and an ice sculpture, plus a Photo Booth with Santa where guests could send holiday greetings back home to the UK courtesy of the night’s big sponsor Air New Zealand.
Christine Peake from Peake Group made sure everyone was well oiled with such brands like Deep Eddy Vodka, One Hope Wine, Honest Ade mixers and Heineken Beer. Paul’s kitchen (www.paulskitchen.com) passed delicious appertizers including mini shepherds pies, turkey rolls with cranberry and of course for dessert the mince pies and sticky toffee pudding came out! Superbly delicious!
Gustaf Farwell and Maria Elena Infantino entertained the crowd with some wonderful Christmas classics, including as “Baby, it’s Cold Outside”. But it was warm in our hearts, because of all this was a fundraiser and our charity UKares managed to raise a good sum of money to help fund their yearly programs including the hardship fund where expats who have fallen on hard times, can apply for help to tide them over and get them back on their feet. To see how you can aid this very worthy cause, please visit the website at www.ukares.org.
None of this would have been possible without all of our wonderful volunteers, committee members and our hardworking board and of course the attendees and major donors, who gave so much of their time and talents. I’m so very proud and grateful to everyone who rallied round to make this event happen. Without a big laundry list here, everyone was thanked in the program. We also did the fun toy drive for the adopt-a-letter charity we wrote about recently in this very column, which has helped out quite a few kids this Christmas.
Eileen and I are hosting Tuesday’s pub quiz at the Pikey on Sunset Boulevard, which should be plenty of fun, plus we are hosting a New Year’s Eve party “UK time” for you at Bar Lubitsch, so come join us at 2pm onwards to watch as Big Ben strike us into a New Year, all details in the Facebook group!
All the best for the end of the year!
Craig Young
