Let Power Go to Your Heart
Friday, November 17, 2006
The Rainbow Room

On November 17, 2006, more than 300 of the city's most accomplished women brought their power and caring to new heights as they climbed 65 floors to the Rainbow Room for the Citymeals-on-Wheels 20th Annual Power Lunch for Women. For one afternoon, the worlds of business, fashion, politics, and entertainment collided to celebrate the power of “woman” while focusing on the Citymeals mission of feeding New York City's homebound elderly. Notable guests included Anne Hathaway, Kathleen Turner, Christine Baranski, Blythe Danner, Tovah Feldshuh, Stephanie March, Bobbi Brown, Carmen Dell'Orefice, Laurie Tisch, Denise Rich, Donna Hanover, Jessye Norman, Caroline Hirsch, Christine Quinn, Silda Wall, Carol Higgins Clark, and Barbara Tober. These women, and many others, walked the press line and brought their impressive names to the lunch to raise awareness and $1.1 million, a new record and enough to provide more than 220,000 nutritious meals to the doors of NYC's lonely aged neighbors.

Paula Zahn once again served as Anchor for the event and presented awards to leading businesswomen and honorees Cathie Black of Hearst, Sallie Krawcheck of Citigroup, and Citymeals Board member Doreen Toben of Verizon Communications.

The lunch culminated with two mesmerizing performances, the first a reading of letters from the elderly brought stirringly to life by Meryl Streep, Iman, and Marian Seldes with a backdrop of portraits of the invisible neighbors Citymeals serves. Tony Award winner Victoria Clark then lent her angelic voice to “I Am Longing (To Be Loved)” to evoke both the frailty and independence of the many homebound seniors throughout New York.

Overall, the event was an enormous success, bringing together over 300 women who show incredible commitment to Citymeals' mission and have become part of its ever-growing family. As they left the Rainbow Room with a pocketful of business cards and a few tears in their eyes, old friends and new promised to set lunch dates for next November -- same time, same place, same cause.

Let Power Go to Your Heart
Friday, November 18, 2005
The Rainbow Room

On November 18, 2005, more than 300 of the city's most accomplished women brought their power and caring to new heights as they climbed 65 floors to the Rainbow Room for the Citymeals-on-Wheels 19th Annual Power Lunch for Women. For one afternoon, the worlds of business, fashion, politics, entertainment, etc. collided to celebrate the power of "woman" while focusing on the Citymeals mission of feeding New York City's homebound elderly. Notable guests included Katie Couric, Joan Collins, Adrienne Landau, Janice Combs, Arlene Dahl, Cover Girl Eva Pigford, Evelyn Lauder, Geraldine Ferraro, Gina Gershon, Jeanine Pirro and Mary Higgins Clark. These women, and many others, walked the press line and brought their impressive names to the lunch to raise awareness and over $870,000 -- enough to provide more than 174,000 nutritious meals to our frail, elderly neighbors.

Paula Zahn took a brief hiatus from CNN to step in as Anchor for the event. She shared her own experience of going on a meal delivery, one that showed her some of the faces of our usually invisible neighbors. Paula went on to present awards to honorees Bobbi Brown and Diane von Furstenberg, both longtime supporters of Citymeals, as well as Janet Sainer, the Commissioner for the NYC Department for the Aging 25 years ago, who took Gael Greene's initial phone call that eventually led to the founding of Citymeals.

The lunch had originally intended to present Preston Robert Tisch, honorary chair and founding director of Citymeals, and his family a lifetime contribution award for their unprecedented generosity over the years. In a loss felt by the entire staff of Citymeals as well as throughout the city and country, Bob Tisch passed away a few days prior to the lunch. His daughter Laurie and granddaughters Emily and Carolyn were at the lunch to accept the award in his memory. In a gesture that spoke volumes to the spirit and heart that Bob possessed, many guests pledged additional donations to Citymeals in his memory, reinforcing the legacy of a man who saw the number of annual meals delivered grow from 20,000 to 2.3 million.

The event program culminated with two riveting performances, the first by Citymeals Board member Kathleen Turner who treated the audience to a final New York performance as "Martha" from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf before taking the show to London. Her vulnerability displayed by a character in fiction very much parallels the real-life frailty of Citymeals' 17,000 meal recipients. Violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg put these feelings of isolation and need to music with a spellbinding rendition of Rachmaninoff's "Vocalise" set against a backdrop of photos of meal clients and handwritten quotes from their many letters.

Overall, the event was an enormous success, bringing together over 300 women who show incredible commitment to Citymeals' mission and have become part of its ever-growing family. As they left the Rainbow Room with a pocketful of business cards and a few tears in their eyes, old friends and new promised to set lunch dates for next November -- same time, same place, same cause. (Karen Page)

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