Fashion Industries Guild’s Jessica Lewensztain (left) with 2013 honorees Steve Schoenholz and Vera Campbell | Photo by Thomas Neerken
FIG HELPS CEDARS-SINAI
Fashion Industries Guild Raises $1.1 Million for Cedars-Sinai
Photo Gallery
Fashion Industries Guild Raises Money for Cedars-Sinai
FIG Raised $1.1 Million for Cedars-Sinai
For the 2013 Fashion Industries Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center gala, held Oct. 4 at the stately Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills, fundraising reached high levels, speeches were short, and the party pulsed with a rock ’n’ roll exuberance.
The charitable group’s 2013 honorees, Vera Campbell and Steve Schoenholz, raised more than $1.1 million for FIG’s Congenital Heart Laboratory and Hal Kaltman Fashion Industries Guild Congenital Heart Research Endowment in Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. It was one of the biggest sums raised in FIG’s 57 years of philanthropy for health research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said Eileen Ellis, an executive vice president for FIG. FIG has raised $23 million for various initiatives at Cedars-Sinai over the years.
Campbell, president and owner of KWDZ Manufacturing LLC,promised to keep speeches short. In her brief remarks, shesaid more than 20 percent of the night’s revenue was raised from a diverse supplier base from around the world. “Without this global support, we would have never been able to raise $1.1 million,” she said.
She also thanked colleagues, friends and families with the humorous quip that their philanthropy “gives us the courage and the support to face the quarterly markdowns.”
Campbell also has deep experience in philanthropy. Her Vera R. Campbell Foundation provides funding to a girls’ school in Kenya and a women’s health clinic and school breakfast program in Cambodia. Closer to Los Angeles, her foundation sponsors the Graphic Arts department at Inner City Arts, an arts-education provider for elementary- and middle-school students in Los Angeles’ Skid Row. She also sits on the board of directors for nonprofits such as Junior Blind of America.
Schoenholz is the founder, president and owner of Tempted Apparel. He also sits on the board of directors for Inner City Arts and National Jewish Health. His father, Bud Schoenholz, was an FIG honoree in 1984.
The theme of the night was “Rock for Fashion,” and event goers were encouraged to wear music festival clothes such as concert T-shirts and jeans, not tuxedos and gowns. If some of the guests looked like they were clad in their daily uniforms, an informal costume contest was held at the end of the night. Barry Cohen won the crowd’s approval for wearing an Elvis Presley jumpsuit, and Jon Lund also gained big applause for wearing a top hat and 1960s-style Haight-Ashbury look.
