On a warm, rainy fall Monday night, guests in their finest, most glittery Michael Kors gathered on the west side of Manhattan for the annual Golden Heart Awards for charity God’s Love We Deliver.
The event, now in its 16th year, was emceed by past honoree Billy Porter, and this year recognized Bella Hadid with the Golden Heart Award for Mental Health Advocacy, Jessica Alba with The Michael Kors Award for Outstanding Philanthropy, Huma Abedin with the Golden Heart Award for Outstanding Leadership and Karen Pearl of God’s Love with the Golden Heart Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Guests were treated to a cocktail hour thrown by Bemelmans Bar of The Carlyle hotel, with waiters dressed in Bemelmans’ signature red coats, a piano performance and the bar’s famed martini. In addition to the honorees, the likes of Lea Michele, Freida Pinto, Paloma Elsesser, Georgina Chapman, Neil Patrick Harris, David Burtka, Nicky Hilton Rothschild and more were in attendance.
God’s Love began in the ’80s during the HIV and AIDS epidemic, and ever since has worked to bring medically tailored meals to New Yorkers living with severe illness.
“The amazing thing about the organization is they started something truly grassroots back in the ’80s, in the basement of a church, and whatever gets thrown their way, they say, ‘OK you know what, we’ll handle this,’” Michael Kors said during the cocktail hour. “A lot of people think New York is cold and isolating. ‘Does anyone really know who lives next door? Does anyone care about their neighbors?’ And I think God’s Love We Deliver is this remarkable organization that reminds us how much we’re all interconnected.”
Alba said she learned about the organization during the pandemic and it struck a chord with her own philanthropic work through her Honest company.
“This is one of the key ones in New York and I work with one in L.A., and we work with a bunch of nonprofit partners, that’s part of our business model,” she said ahead of the program. “It’s important, the work that they do, and helping so many folks who are struggling to get by. I think we all should do our part in giving back. The world would be a better place if we all did a little bit more. This is just exemplary of what we all should be doing.”
During the dinner and program, Michele, on a night off from “Funny Girl,” came onstage and surprised the crowd with a live musical performance. The evening would go on to raise more than $3 million for the charity, which translates to more than 300,000 meals for New Yorkers in need.
Reports /TrainViral/
