Social Circuit

For the 10 staffers of former WHAT-AM who attended the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists' second annual Banquet of Honors on Saturday at the First District Plaza Ballroom, the evening was bittersweet. It was the first time they were reunited since the station was sold in January and they lost their jobs. PABJ honored the station's hosts and producers. Receiving Trailblazer Awards were four PABJ founding members - Inquirer deputy managing editor Sandra Long, Daily News columnist and editorial board member Elmer Smith, freelance writer and former radio host Karen Warrington, and former Philadelphia Tribune editor Paul Bennett. Named PABJ's Journalist of the Year was Inquirer education reporter Melanie Burney for her stories exposing a culture of cheating in the Camden schools that led to sweeping changes. PABJ presented NBC10 photojournalist Pete Kane with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and former WCAU-TV consumer reporter Orien Reid with its Community Service Award.

Mural Arts Program (MAP) director Jane Golden and Bank of America Pa. president Dan Fitzpatrick, MAP sponsor, took paintbrush in hand to create a mural of City Hall at the Wall Ball 2007, held on May 31 at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel. Taking a bow for their commitment to MAP were Fitzpatrick and former Mayor W. Wilson Goode, who launched the program in 1984 as part of the Anti-Graffiti Network. (Also honored were Gov. Rendell and Mayor Street, who were unable to attend.) The hot auction item of the evening was breakfast at Lacroix with mayoral candidate Michael Nutter, which went for $3,600. Among the 350 guests were Joe and Renee Zuritsky, Bruce and Robbi Toll, Jeff Guaracino, Nina Tinari, Pamela Crawley, Paul Levy, and John Westrum. Mural Arts, the nation's largest mural program, with 2,700 murals in Philadelphia, raised more than $160,000 to support its community and education initiatives.

National Bank of Malvern chairman Lydia Willits Bartholomew hosted Planned Parenthood of Chester County's 40th anniversary fund-raiser on June 1 at her home, Lucky Hill Farm, in West Chester. Recalling the old days was Bartholomew's mother, Lydia H. Willits, who during the 1930s worked for Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger in New York, distributing brochures to women about birth control options. This was risky business, given the Comstock Act, which forbade the distribution of such material. Among the 350 guests were Craig Postlewait and Suzanne duPont-Postlewait; Philip Bell and Jean Wyeth Bell; and Tom and Margaretta Brokaw. The Spring Event, chaired by Patricia Schultz, raised nearly $100,000 to support PPCC's health care, education and advocacy services.

The Mann Center for the Performing Arts had much to celebrate at its opening-night party on June 1 for 250 of its board members, sponsors and donors: the success of its first capital campaign since the outdoor theater was built 31 years ago. Guests drove into an upgraded parking lot, admired a profusion of new summer flowers at the main gates, and strolled to the top of the hill for hors d'oeuvres by the new caterer CulinArt. After the performance with the Philly Pops and Jennifer Holliday, the original Broadway star of Dreamgirls, guests enjoyed fireworks from the new Pitcairn Donor Terrace & Garden and the adjoining Elizabeth Schoch Bowden Artist Reception Room. The $15 million campaign also features new classroom space in the Field Education & Outreach Center and new food concessions, bars and rest rooms in the Independence Foundation Pavilion.

Einstein is still a draw. When the Albert Einstein Society of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network held its 35th annual dinner on May 31 at the Four Seasons Hotel, who was the logical speaker? Walter Isaacson, former CNN chairman and author of

Albert Einstein: His Life and Universe

, of course. And draw he did, as did the evening's two honorees - Einstein board member Arnold Katz and Dr. John Kelly, who received the Physician Leadership Award. The society has raised $520,000 so far, up from $440,000 last year, to fund 13 innovative programs and research projects that are the brainchild of staff and physicians of the Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. One of the new programs will be a multidisciplinary children's autism clinic scheduled to open in the fall at Einstein Medical Center. The clinic, funded in part with a $49,000 grant to Drs. Wendy Ross and Angela Jones, will provide all the specialists needed to evaluate and establish treatment plans for up to 100 children in the first year.