Social Circuit

Even after 60 years, the Police Athletic League is still breaking records. This year, the annual PAL Award Dinner, held at the Sheraton City Center Hotel on May 22, drew a record 1,250 guests, up from 1,100 last year. The event honored Charming Shoppes president, chief executive officer and board chairman Dorrit Bern; Comcast executive vice president of operations Dave Watson; and UPS vice president of corporate operations Steve Forgue, and raised about $965,000, up from about $800,000 last year. The silent and live auction together set a new high of $79,000, which included $2,600 for tickets to Fashion Week in New York to meet designer Tory Burch (and later tour her studio) and $1,700 for tickets to a Penn State football game that includes time on the field with the Blue Band, seats in the press box, and access to Joe Paterno's news conference. PAL has a total enrollment of 26,000 youngsters at 27 centers throughout the city.

City Year, a youth corps dedicated to community service, celebrated its 10th Anniversary Gala at the Kimmel Center on May 23 with 500 business and civic leaders. Among the speakers was Leon McClain, who survived a shooting in his neighborhood in North Philadelphia and is now, only a year later, about to graduate from City Year. McClain is one of 1,500 volunteers ages 17 to 24 who have graduated from City Year since it was launched in 1997 by Eagles president Joe Banner, Behr Capital Partners president Phil Behr, and Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter, among others. Receiving City Year's Idealist of the Year Award was Philadelphia Media Holdings chief executive officer Brian Tierney. The gala, cochaired by Fred Blume, Ed Coryell, Joe Jacovini and Pete Musser, raised $475,000 for City Year programs.

The Battle of the Berries at Brandywine was fought on May 23 at the Brandywine Health Foundation's annual Garden Party at Springbank Farm, the home of Jennifer and Bob McNeil in Coatesville. The winning dessert, voted on by the 400 guests, was a vanilla Bavarian crème in a phyllo cup with mixed berries from the Gables restaurant in Chadds Ford. The party kicked off the Rouse/Chamberlin Homes 2007 Strawberry Festival that was held last weekend on the grounds of Brandywine Hospital. The party and festival together netted $150,000 for the foundation, whose signature project is the $13 million Brandywine Health & Housing Center currently under construction in Coatesville. The four-story, 48,000-square-foot center will provide a permanent home for health and dental services and provide affordable housing for 24 senior citizens.

The American Revolution Center, little more than a pipe dream for more than 10 years, is now kicking into high gear. With a deal in place to purchase 78 acres of open space in Lower Providence Township on which to build the museum, center chairman Gerry Lenfest led a cadre of more than 100 supporters to Washington on May 24 to launch the French Friends of the American Revolution Center. They attended a grand soiree at the French ambassador's residence, where they were greeted by Ambassador Jean-David Levitte's wife, Marie-Cecile. The French Friends are poised to host lectures, create fellowships, and acquire important period artifacts for the center. Architect Robert A.M. Stern is designing the museum, which will feature 15,000 objects in exhibition space designed by Ralph Appelbaum & Associates, the exhibition designer for the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Children's Crisis Treatment Center held its annual Western-themed fund-raiser, the 2007 Roundup, Friday at Loews Philadelphia Hotel. The event, cochaired by Barbara Brown, David Hall, Brian Kappra and Creg Oosterhart, was strictly Western-chic attire. Among the 325 guests were Democratic mayoral nominee Michael Nutter, Nancy Glass of HGTV, Greater Philadelphia Film Office executive director Sharon Pinkenson, and Stephanie Stahl of CBS3. More than $200,000 was raised to support the mental and behavioral health services that are provided by the treatment center to underserved children and their families at 18 sites throughout the city, including at 14 public schools.