On August 4, at the Ice Palace, the tireless and dedicated Concerned Women of the Grove (CWOG) held their annual Breast Cancer benefit, raising funds for research and services, with Gilda’s Club NYC and Stony Brook Cancer Center as beneficiaries. Representatives of the latter organizations spoke.
Attendees bid on donated silent auction items such as tickets for television show tapings, ball games, and theater; gift certificates; a Marilyn Monroe “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” porcelain doll; handmade pottery by Petra Brehl; a baseball cap autographed by Melissa Etheridge; framed autographed photos of Pink, Stevie Nicks, Beyoncé, Demi Lovato, Lady Gaga, and Elton John, with memorabilia; woodcut pictures of a seagull and a crab; a framed caricature of Bette Midler in “Hello Dolly;” a framed Keith Haring print; jewelry; a framed invitation to John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier’s wedding, with their wedding pictures; a framed 3-D rendering of Lincoln Center by Charles Fazzino; gift baskets of Brooklyn and Cherry Grove souvenirs, bath products, alcohol, coffee, and grill seasonings and tools; and an autographed photo of Derek Jeter, a baseball autographed by the Mets, and other baseball memorabilia.
Donna Piranha conducted a live auction of a pair of tickets for the two parts of “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” on Broadway, which went for $1,400 to Cherry Grove Community Association, Inc. Treasurer Tina, and a secret box, which turned out to contain numerous scratch-off tickets, which went for $626 to Michael Moran and Matthew George.
Assisted by DJ Jizzabella and, later, DJ Chuck, Donna hosted a show that included her own numbers “The Boss” (Diana Ross), “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” (Cyndi Lauper), “Don’t Stop Me Now” (Queen), and “I Don’t Know if it’s Right” (Evelyn Champagne King); Sue Cialini-King, with her guitar, singing “Love the One You’re With” and “What I Like about You;” and Logan Hardcore and Brenda Dharling doing “Bang Bang,” complete with splits and high kicks.
During the afternoon, the crowd enjoyed tasty hors d’oeuvres and dancing to such numbers as the “Electric Slide.”