By Kyle Jor­rey, TheAcorn.com

STARS COME OUT—Greg Grun­berg of the Band from TV ser­e­nades actress Jen­nifer Love Hewitt dur­ing last weekend’s THE (Together Help­ing Edu­ca­tion) Event fundraiser in Cal­abasas. Photo: RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

Declar­ing it a wind­fall for the stu­dents and teach­ers of the Las Vir­genes Uni­fied School Dis­trict, the orga­niz­ers of last Saturday’s gala dubbed THE Event are say­ing the $150-aticket party in Cal­abasas raised more than $400,000.

“We were hop­ing among our­selves to make $100,000, $150,000, we thought that was pretty aggres­sive,” said Jes­sica Pinto Nedick, co-chair of THE Event. “So when the total num­bers came back, we were just blown away.”

The celebrity-laden evening soiree at the Cal­abasas Ten­nis and Swim Cen­ter was the inau­gural fundrais­ing gala for Together Help­ing Edu­ca­tion, a foun­da­tion started in Decem­ber 2010 by a group of com­mu­nity mem­bers con­cerned about statewide cuts to pub­lic education.

Pinto Nedick, who co-chaired the event along­side Marc Her­nan­dez and Deanna Glass­berg, said the non­profit group saw the evening as an oppor­tu­nity to raise aware­ness about the foun­da­tion and to raise the alarm about the fund­ing plight of local schools. But it turned out to be much more.

CELEBS—Chris Har­ri­son, host of TV’s “The Bach­e­lor,” and Greg Grun­berg, actor and founder of Band from TV, enter­tain the crowd at THE Event at Cal­abasas Ten­nis and Swim Cen­ter last Sat­ur­day. Har­ri­son and Grun­berg both have chil­dren in LVUSD schools. Photo: RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

It really showed what this com­mu­nity is capa­ble of doing when given the oppor­tu­nity to unite …” Pinto Nedick said.

Greeted by balmy weather and the oppor­tu­nity to taste fine wines and sam­ple some of the area’s high-end restaurants—Maestro’s and Fleming’s steak houses among them—more than 1,000 guests filled the out­door venue to near capac­ity. And when time came for the live auc­tion, the crowd of LVUSD par­ents and sup­port­ers didn’t keep their hands stuck in their pockets.

With Chris Harrison—host of TV’s “The Bach­e­lor” and “The Bach­e­lorette” and par­ent of a child at White Oak Ele­men­tary in West­lake Village—lending his ser­vices as mas­ter of cer­e­monies, and pro­fes­sional auc­tion­eer Jeff Tanen­baum han­dling the bid­ders, the live auc­tion raised approx­i­mately $160,000, includ­ing $85,000 dur­ing the auction’s “Raise Your Pad­dle” portion.

“I was cry­ing,” Pinto Nedick said. “We were hop­ing to have a few peo­ple raise those pad­dles— this is lit­er­ally just peo­ple giv­ing money, they get noth­ing in return. Our esti­mate was $20,000 or $30,000, and we raised $85,000 in 10 minutes.”

Asked how THE Event was able to be suc­cess­ful when so many non­prof­its are strug­gling, Pinto Nedick cred­ited the foundation’s exec­u­tive board mem­bers with com­ing up with a fundraiser that really fit the community—then call­ing every num­ber in their Rolodex to drum up sup­port for it.

“We really reached out to our rela­tion­ships and our con­nec­tions and cre­ated what we thought would be an incred­i­ble coming-out party, and all of it is to ben­e­fit teach­ers and coun­selors,” she said.

No con­nec­tion was more impor­tant than the one forged between foun­da­tion pres­i­dent Her­nan­dez, and Greg Grun­berg, whose chil­dren are in the same class at Round Meadow Ele­men­tary School in Calabasas.

Par­ents bid at the auc­tion. Pho­tos by RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

Grun­berg, a famil­iar face to TV view­ers from his roles on NBC’s “Heroes” and more recently on Lifetime’s “The Client List,” also hap­pens to be the par­ent of three boys at three dif­fer­ent schools in the school dis­trict. His old­est, 16-yearold Jake, goes to Agoura High School; Ben, 12, is at A.E. Wright Mid­dle School and youngest Sam, 8, is at Round Meadow Elementary.

When Her­nan­dez, part-owner of Brent Deli’s in West­lake Vil­lage, approached Grun­berg about help­ing with the event, both he and wife Elizabeth—who were later named hon­orary co-chairs—jumped in full force, Pinto Nedick said.

“They are an incred­i­ble cou­ple,” she said of the Grunbergs.

Greg Grun­berg not only offered to invite all his celebrity friends, but he offered to let his band, Band from TV—a group com­pris­ing actors from pop­u­lar shows like “Lost” and “Des­per­ate House­wives”— play for free.

“It was such a smart thing (for the foun­da­tion) to do, to give a very direct invi­ta­tion to these par­ents who want to do some­thing, who want to help out the schools, ‘Hey, come have a party,’” said Grun­berg, who has his own foun­da­tion ded­i­cated to rais­ing aware­ness about epilep­tic seizures.

Dur­ing its hour-long per­for­mance Sat­ur­day night, the band wel­comed spe­cial cameos by come­dian Wayne Brady and actress Jen­nifer Love Hewitt, both friends of Grun­berg. Also seen at the event: boxer Aud­ley Har­ri­son, a mem­ber of THE, and Back­street Boys band mem­ber Kevin Richardson.

“This school dis­trict was so ripe and ready for some­thing well orga­nized and put together,” Grun­berg said. “(The credit) goes directly to Marc, Jes­sica and Deanna (Glass­berg), they put in so much hard work and it showed. It was just flawless.”

Pinto Nedick said the best thing about last Saturday’s event wasn’t the great food, wine or music—it was that audi­ence mem­bers bought into the foundation’s message.

“Our mes­sage was very clear: We have the con­trol. We can make what hap­pens in Sacra­mento irrel­e­vant to our children’s edu­ca­tion, that was our mes­sage, and that res­onated. Peo­ple got it.”

Source: The Acorn Press
http://www.theacorn.com/news/2012–06-14/Front_Page/THE_Big_Event.html