Society: Burnham’s The Power to Cure gala

Nov. 14 brought out the scientific research supporters for the Burnham Institute gala themed The Power to Cure. Guests arrived to the Hyatt Regency La Jolla in black tie attire for the cause. To help raise funds for medical research, with the goal in sight to cure medical diseases.

Nico Nierenberg with his co-chair and wife, Caroline Nierenberg (Photo by Margo Schwab)

There were many big supporters there who would not miss this evening. Peggy and Peter Preuss of the Preuss School whisked in from China, Lorenzo Berho and his family zipped in from Mexico City, and Tanya and Charles Brandes pushed back a trip to New York City to be at the gala.

Among the mix enjoying a champagne bar displayed in an ice sculpture, a caviar bar, and tray passed hors d’oeuvres, were Caroline Nierenberg and Kathryn Stephens (event co-chairs), Marleigh and Alan Gleicher, Jeanne and Gary Herberger, uber Burnham angel Denny Sanford, Roberta and Malin Burnham, Joan and Irwin Jacobs, Audrey Geisel with her very handsome escort Larry Scott, May Zawaideh, and Valerie and Harry Cooper.

Read more: Civic, business leader Malin Burnham weighs in on the future of San Diego

The very fashionable were there too. Jennifer Greenfield wore a colorful Carlos Miele in reds and black. Tanya Brandes wore a fluttering black J. Mendel with train. Marleigh Gleicher wore black with flattering lace insets in the right places. Mary Drake wore a regal gown by Carol Peretz, who is a very renown designer in Canada and the East Coast. Miriam Smotirch was striking in a fitted Yigal (the designer is her brother). Valerie Cooper wore a timeless Marc Bouwer with a lot of 60s reminiscent “wow” power, and Muffy Walker wore a brilliant couture green gown with a dazzling décolletage.

Dinner by executive chef Sebastien Layen served up a mix green and baby spinach salad with caramelized curry apples and candied pecans, a duet of beef medallion and Chilean Sea Bass with risotto and potato gallette, and for those still hungry, a white chocolate milkshake with chocolate nougatine poured over toffee pudding.

There was a strawberry lab station too for those who wished to have a chocolate covered strawberry injected with a cordial of your choice.

A lot of hands went up during the live auction as Bill Menish coaxed the generous to be more generous — from $50,000 to $500, it all goes to a very good cause: medical research for cures to cancer, aging, diabetes, obesity, children’s diseases, and infectious and inflammatory diseases to name a few.

A lot of people are banking on the brain power of exceptional scientists like those found at the Burnham. Mary and Hudson Drake said, “Virtually everyone has lost a family member or friend to cancer. The answer will be found, most likely, from the innovating research and technologies from dedicated organizations such as the Burnham Institute. The evening was a wonderful celebration of caring people with an agenda … to improve  health by supporting focused research to end the toll taken on all of us by horrible diseases.”

Co-chair Caroline Nirenberg agreed and added this: “The Burnham Gala, The Power to Cure raises money to fill a gap in funding for scientific research. This year Kathryn and I wanted to highlight the wonderful work that the Burnham scientists accomplish everyday in their laboratories. Their research in the areas of cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, heart disease, diabetes, autism, ALS, influenza, Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, (just to name a few of the diseases that are studied at the Burnham) is going to lead to discoveries that will improve the health and well being for everyone on this planet, for generations to come. There is a real art to being a scientific investigator and we wanted to show the beauty of their work.”

Beautiful it was as almost $1million was raised for medical research!

With continued big support from people and companies like lead sponsor Life Technologies, combined with the smarts of CEO/ President John Reed and his scientist team, diseases will be cured.

To learn more about the Burnham Institute, visit www.burnham.org .

To view more photos and coverage of this event, visit www.thesocialdiary.com

Margo Schwab is the editor of TheSocialDiary.com, the society reporter and specialty reporter for San Diego Home & Garden Magazine, and the society writer for San Diego News Network. To notify her about your upcoming event, e-mail mschwab@san.rr.com.

Tags: Burnham Institute The Power to Cure Gala, Caroline Nierengberg and Kathryn Stephens, Peggy and Peter Preuss, SDNN, the preuss school

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 10:21 am and is filed under Society . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.