The who’s who of Sydney’s philanthropic community gathered on the lawns of Justin Hemmes’ Vaucluse mansion on Saturday night for The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation’s annual fundraiser, The Silver Party.
Among the guests who adopted the “flats, wedges or barefoot” Haute Boheme dress code were rich-listers John Symond and wife Amber, luxury car salesman Neville Crichton and wife Nadi, and property developer John Boyd and wife Marlee.
And they weren’t afraid to spend big on the night.
The Silver Committee, which is Chaired by Maree Andrews who has Greek heritage, had ambitions of raising a million dollars for the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital at the party, but this expectation was exceeded.
A live auction on the night, run by auctioneer Damien Cooley, started with Liberal party vice-president Teena McQueen pledging $300,000 for the children’s cancer centre on behalf of Australia’s richest person, billionaire mining magnate Gina Rinehart.
In the end, according to a post on the Foundation’s Facebook page, “a record-breaking $2.8 million was raised [on the night] to help support the kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick.”
“The Silver community has shown enormous generosity over the last two challenging years,” Ms Andrews, who is celebrating 20 years on the Silver Party committee and 16 years as Chair, told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“Donors have continued to pledge money to support Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation and guests donated their ticket monies and have repurchased afresh.”
Great success for a fantastic event!
