Progressive Do-Gooding

My senior year of college, I joked around when asked at the beginning of a semester that I wanted to be a professional Jewish Boston socialite. It took a while for reality to kick in that it takes years to become both a Jew and a socialite. At one point I gave up on that dream but now it's slowly becoming a reality.

Mike and I have been to 3 fundraisers/awareness-raisers in the past week and they were all for a fantastic cause. Or we just got to go shopping for a cause we weren't fully aware of. Here's what our philanthropic sides have been up to:

Last Saturday, Mike's friend Sam, who is saving the world by one charity at a time, co-hosted a house party in JP for the Resource Generation's Gulf South Relief initiative which donates money to empowering charities. This fundraiser went to the 21st Century Foundation which focus on giving money to black communities and organizations to help rebuild their communities that were ravaged by Katrina and Rita last year. It was my first official JP house party, which meant that along with Sam's mom, we were the only heterosexual women (or at least women who shaved their armpits) in the room. They did an incredible job and raised $10,082 from one packed house.

Friday night, Mike and I went shopping at Stel's. Rogue's Gallery was screenprinting custom vintage t-shirts with the proceeds going to saving the whales out of an institute in Rhode Island. I made a great shirt that says "The Favorite" printed in cream on brown on the lower right side. Mike got a crow and a mermaid shirt. Stel's was simultaneously hosting a benefit the Patriot's Larry Izzo's Salute to the Troops, which helps out Iraq vets and their families who have lost limbs in battle. For every $100 spent, your name is entered in a raffle to win either a $500 Stel's gift certificate or dinner for 2 at 3 really great restaurants (which I don't remember). We definitely got our names entered a few times and I came home with another RG tshirt. I was aware that this was for a footballer's charity and when Jon and Tina, the owners, were ringing us up, Jon pointed out one of the Pats. I thought it was Larry Izzo and announced out loud how cute he was, real cute. Then he was looking at jewelry with whom I assumed is his fiance, who looked vaguely familiar. I commented about the beautiful glistening ring on her finger. Mike, who admits this is the meanest thing he ever said to me (I didn't realize it at the time because I was in awe of this diamond), told me that once I look like her I could have a ring like that. I told him I had a nicer nose. Turns out it was no Larry Izzo, but Tom Brady, who you may remember from an episode of Family Guy.

Last night, we hosted our first party that didn't involve fist fights or kazoo playing. It was the inaugural Brattle Theatre's Balcony Club mixer. No one from the Balcony Club actually showed up, but some board members and commitee members along with local artists and Andover kids with beards showed up. We ate a lot of food and my pomegranate mojitos were a hit once I added more club soda (thanks Sean). We got the word out about our upcoming gala for Janus Films' 50th anniversary (which I'm co-chairing) and a very special evening with David Lynch at the preview of his new flick coming out at the Brattle in December (take that Landmark and Lowes). In my eyes it was successful based on the terrible rain and the fact that there were more than 10 people there. Everyone had a great time, although no one really paid much attention to Dracula playing on our big blank wall.