Inside the Star-studded Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club President’s Dinner

The annual gala raised more than $1.4 million and granted the Lifetime Achievement Award to landscape architect Edmund Hollander

April 4, 2025

On the particularly warm evening of Thursday, April 3, the design industry’s elite gathered at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City for the annual Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club President’s Dinner. The camaraderie-filled occasion raised $1.4 million to support the organization’s efforts in providing more than 11,000 young people at nine locations throughout the Bronx with essential after-school and enrichment programs.

Chaired by celebrated designers Jamie Drake and Corey Damen Jenkins, the event honored textile company Schumacher and granted the Lifetime Achievement Award to landscape architect Edmund Hollander. The evening was vice-chaired by star-studded design talents including Sasha Bikoff, Jesse Carrier, Mara Miller, Alexa Hampton, Young Huh, Andrew Torrey, Jonathan Savage, and Alessandra Branca. It also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Kips Bay Decorator Show House New York, which will take place in the fall.

Corey Damen Jenkins, Jamie Drake. Photo: Jiraurd Key/BFA.com

James Druckman, the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club Board of Trustees President and owner of the New York Design Center, opened the evening by welcoming guests and thanking them for generously supporting the organization year after year. He then handed the mic over to Drake and Damen Jenkins, who teased next month’s release of the highly anticipated book Iconic Rooms: Kips Bay New York Decorator Show House at 50 (Gibbs Smith). The tome journeys back in time through some of the most memorable spaces in the show house’s history, from a dreamy blue bedroom imagined by Mario Buatta in 1985 to the psychedelic staircase Sasha Bikoff dreamed up in 2018. Each guest walked away with a copy.

Ed Hollander, Bunny Williams. Photo: Jiraurd Key/BFA.com

Later, Matouk CEO George Matouk introduced Emily Romero, the president of Schumacher North America, and Dara Caponigro, the brand’s creative director, who accepted the corporate honoree award on behalf of Schumacher, a longtime supporter of the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. (The company provided tablecloths for the dinner.) Bunny Williams then presented friend and collaborator Edmund Hollander with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Daniel Quintero, Executive Director of the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, closed the evening with the annual Sponsor a Child fundraiser, which filled the venue with balloons, each representing a donation. Throughout the evening, guests also enjoyed song and dance performances by members of the organization’s Performing Arts Program, including an entrancing number to Lady Gaga’s chart-topping single “Abracadabra.”

Mark D Sikes, Nazira Handal. Photo: Jiraurd Key/BFA.com

Galerie editor in chief Jacqueline Terrebonne, Rob Johansen. Photo: Bre Johnson/BFA.com

The design industry’s best and brightest showed up to support the organization. Among the notables in attendance were Vanessa DeLeon, Galerie Creative Mind Lori Weitzner, Stephanie Goto, Laetitia Laurent, Galerie Rob Johansen, Thom Filicia, Nazira Handal, Chad Dorsey, Paul Melo, Christopher Peacock, Peter Dunham, Noz Nozawa, Armando Aguirre, Regan Iglesia, Federico de Francesco, Kate Brodsky, and Galerie editor in chief Jacqueline Terrebonne.

See more photos from the glamorous event below.

Daniel Quintero, James Druckman, Young Huh, Edmund Hollander, Bunny Williams, Jamie Drake, Corey Damen Jenkins, Andrew Torrey. Photo: Bre Johnson/BFA.com