(During these back-to-back-event days and nights, we occasionally have stringers provide coverage for MySweetCharity. No, we’re not having the pr person for the event do the write up. That would be a potential conflict of interest, don’t you know. If you suspect any missed coverage in any MSC posts, PLEASE let us know. While we like to be timely, credibility and accuracy are the priorities at MSC.)
Talk about synchronicity among charitable partners!
Nancy Nasher Haemisegger, co-owner of Dallas shopping mecca NorthPark Center, helped demonstrate that concept in spades Wednesday night, when the new Montblanc Boutique there hosted a private opening event benefiting The Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
The festive party for an estimated 130 guests featured a special performance by Dallas symphony musicians, and 10 percent of the evening’s sales proceeds were donated directly to the DSO.
But, the cooperation didn’t end there.
Nasher Haemisegger, who’s a member of the DSO board, helped persuade the board to hold its quarterly meeting at Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant, also located at NorthPark, just before the Montblanc fete. As a result it was easy for many of the directors–including Nancy, Ron Gafford (pictured center with Nancy Nasher Haemisegger and DSO CEO Paul Stewart) and Joe Hubach–to walk the short distance once the meeting was over to the new Montblanc store.
There, they got a peek at the luxury brand’s brightly lit, 1,800-square-foot digs (about two-thirds as large as the brand’s former NorthPark location, just across the way), and a chance to chat it up with Montblanc’s affable North America president and CEO, Jan-Patrick Schmitz (pictured). The German-born Schmitz, who called Texas one of the iconic pen, watch and jewelry purveyor’s top four U.S. markets, said partnering with organizations like the DSO is “really close to my heart.”
Such arts partnerships “are not what we do,” he added. “It’s what we are.”
Indeed, the company had donated about $45,000 worth of gift items to be raffled off at the DSO’s recent AT&T Gala fundraiser at the Meyerson Symphony Center. Wednesday night, many who’d won those items at the gala showed up at the Montblanc boutique to collect their booty.
Among them were Hubach, a Texas Instruments exec who’d won a watch and a pen, and DSO vice president Rosemary Wilkie (pictured). Wilkie said she bought $2,000 worth of raffle tickets at the gala and won $3,500 worth of prizes, including a pen embellished with an emerald. “This is unbelievable,” she gasped, excitedly unwrapping the box containing the bejeweled pen.
Others enjoying the evening’s festivities were Dallas businessman Ed Okpa, who was talking up a new natural-gas venture he’s involved with in Nigeria; and Oak Cliff-native playwright Regina Taylor (pictured), author of the Dallas Theater Center’s upcoming “The Trinity River Plays,” a co-production with The Goodman Theatre of Chicago. Taylor said her three-part work is scheduled to have its world premiere at the AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre on Nov. 12.
-Photos and post by Glenn Hunter