Recap

Dear friends of LOVE, HALLIE:

Thanks to all of you who participated in making the LOVE, HALLIE Foundation special event Hallie’s 18th Birthday Celebration Concert on August 18, 2010 a success. Here’s a recap:

* The Invitation  Many people commented favorably on the invitations, which featured Hallie’s poem Excitement. Thomas Hamilton of Hamilton Design Services contributed the beautiful design, and Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel donated the printing (thanks to Geralyn Spencer and Brandon Cato at Kramer Levin for coordinating the printing!). Board member Howard L.Wieder outdid himself distributing invitations by hand in at least two boroughs, and many of his friends attended as a result. Diane Magnuson and Sofia Geier both worked hard on media outreach.

* The Refreshments  Guests enjoyed sandwiches, snack bags, and desserts made with a huge donation of ingredients and supplies by Myriad Restaurant Group of Tribeca Grill and Nobu renown (thanks to Marty, Tim and Drew!), all washed down with six flavors of Fizzy Lizzy, thanks to a generous donation from Fizzy Lizzy CEO Aaron Morrill. Dessert was peach cake baked by Hallie’s “Granddibbs” Walter Geier. Hallie’s Aunt Liz pulled it all together in advance, then worked with Hallie's tireless cousin Tania Gaete and Aunt Cathryn as well as Hallie’s Uncle Bob, Aunt Yvette, and cousins Stephanie, Winnie, and Sara, Anna Holbrook, and Christine and Mallaigh Ashton to keep attendees well fed.

* Materials and Publications  Visitors received copies of Hallie’s writings and the Hallie’s Angels Youth Action kit from a table managed by Hallie's friends Sara Lowry, Dora Bowman, and Maia McCormick.

* The Venue 3 Legged Dog proved an ideal site for the event with it's wide-open space, high quality audio/video, and helpful team. Thanks to both Aarons, Piama, and the rest of the 3LD team, especially sound
man Joe Berger who worked tirelessly for two straight days to help things run smoothly.


* Major donors  Advance donations from board member Rosemary Stuart and her husband Fred Paliani and from the 4D entertainment company Simex-Iwerks allowed us to dive into this event. Ultimately, we received 71 contributions totaling almost $6,000. With expenses under $5,000, the event ended up in the black, exceeding its original goal of breaking even.

* The Blog  A unique aspect of the event was, and still is, the blog hallies18th.blogspot.com. Shurilla Guerrilla, an on-line media and marketing company headed by Jeff Shurilla, donated all of the services required to get the site on-line, and Jeff added a moving rendition of Hallie’s poem My Sister to the evening’s program, and filmed long-time Geier family friend Seth Magalaner’s entertaining and poignant rendition of Hallie’s essay There’s Something About Murray. That segment was projected at the Celebration. The blog will continue to be updated with videos and comments on the event.

* The Art Celebration attendees enjoyed an exhibition of 20 pieces of Hallie’s art displayed at the event and curated by Queens-based artists Susie and Casey Conselmo. The art included early crayon drawings, watercolors, and paintings.

* The Videos Cohlie Brocato and Joey DiConcetto worked for days to produce two videos, including one of Hallie and MJ singing an Elvis Presley medley at various ages and the other featuring Hallie with friends and family. Aunt Liz produced a slide show that regrettably did not air at the Celebration because of technical difficulties, but that will soon be posted in segments on YouTube. The Celebration audience was surprised towards the end of the concert when a video featuring Isabella Hatkoff and her father Craig flashed on the giant screens. Isabella and Craig had recently published a book about Winter, a baby dolphin who survived losing her tail. Craig and Isabella informed the audience they had told Winter about Hallie’s admiration of dolphins, and that Winter then created a painting for Hallie. The audience then saw the painting unveiled and placed with Hallie’s painting of dolphins. Much of Hallie’s art can now be seen with her writings at halliekassandrageier.wordpress.com.

* On Stage In addition to the many people at 3LD, more tuned in to watch the event streamed live on-line. Here, roughly in order, are some of the highlights of the evening’s recitals of Hallie’s poems and essays and musical performances featuring the one-night-only band Hallie’s Comets (in alphabetical order: George Andoniadis, Cohlie Brocato, Joe Caputo, Alan Friedman, M.J. Geier, Ted Geier, Jane Martin, Chris Owens, Lloyd Schwartz, Marcus Terrell Smith, Adam Willumsen, Laura Willumsen (special thanks to Betsy and Marc Leavitt for providing housing to Laura!), and Noah Willumsen). Many of the songs featured beautiful orchestrations prepared by Adam.

Click the Party Program tab for a look at the full list of songs and poems.

* Clean up At the end of the night, a small but very hardy crew joined Hallie’s Comets and the Geier family to move all the platforms, pack the equipment and clean. Thanks also to Sara Lowry and to Sarah Natochenny and her friend Josh Horwitz, who all worked up a major sweat in this process.

* Donors LOVE, HALLIE thanks the following individuals and companies who made generous financial contributions to the Celebration (list alphabetical and information):

* Jim & Diane Abbatemarco
* Scarlett & Mokkarum Ahmed
* Yusuf Ali
* Melva Barney
* Martha Battles
* Jonathan Bernstein (in loving memory of his daughter Julia Bernstein, a dear friend of Hallie’s)
* Donny Blumenkranz
* Dawn Clarke
* Ray Concepcion
* James Dal Canton
* Peggy Darling
* Colin Davey
* Patricia Dorfman
* The Emily Lou Morrill Fund
* Alan Friedman
* Bob, Yvette, and Stephanie Geier
* Walter & Joan Geier
* Kim Graham
* Stephen Hans
* Amy Hatkoff
* Christopher Hayes
* Evelyn Hernandez & Sara and Elisa Garcia
* Barbara Kolsun
* Mark Lanham
* Diana, Bill, Charlotte, and Alice Leavengood
* Judy Levine
* Sara Lowry
* Ellen Macleay
* Seth Magalaner
* Hon. Charles Markey
* Jeanne Martin
* Bernard McBride
* Maia, Devon, and Lisa Remez McCormick
* Albert Medina
* The Emily Lou Morrill Fund
* Adam P. Murphy
* Sarah Natochenny
* James Nocito
* Ethel Owens
* Ellie Philips
* Susan & Binky Philips
* John & Sheila Platt
* Lisa Rosenberg
* Lorna Sierolawski
* Naomi Gale Silverman
* Simex-Iwerks
* Dominique Stavropolous
* Avery Steele
* Rosemary Stuart & Fred Paliani
* Szerlip Insurance
* Christine Tamke
* Jimmy Van Bramer & Dan Hendrick
* Helen Varsam (Hallie’s Nursery School principal!)
* Howard Wieder
* S.J. Whitecross
* Brenda Wilson & Family
* Nina Wintringham

Thanks again for joining us in celebrating!

Love and gratitude,

M.J., Sofia, and Ted Geier
Members, LOVE, HALLIE Board of Directors