Celebration of Hope Gala It was a a spectacular evening to celebrate the award winners and announce a new Communtiy service award named after one of our own. Over 280 attended the Building Hope Foundation and the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Fairfield annual gala , “A Celebration of Hope” on December 5th at the Water’s Edge at Giovanni’s in Darien. The HBRA presented awards and recognitions to association members for their excellence in their respective industry. The Building Hope Foundation presented their philanthropic awards to both association members and non-members for their outstanding commitment of donated time and resources. “We at Building Hope are truly blessed that many of our industries top professionals are dedicated to our vision for a better world. It seems only fitting that we honor their philanthropic donation of time, money and expertise to our cause,” stated Andrew La Sala, Jr., President of the Building Hope Foundation. “We were also thrilled to be honoring our invited Veterans and two other charities for the first time making this a night to remember and a true Celebration of Hope.” A new award, the Steven Berko Community Service Award, was established in part to the work of Steven Berko and his dog Dascha with the children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the aftermath of that tragedy. There was moving tribute given by Karen King, a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary on how his efforts helped these children deal with the anger and confusion of the events using his therapy dog. The first Steven Berko Community Service awardees were Campbell Kinsman, a teenager from Ridgefield who started Bear Hug, a non-profit association that sends care packages and teddy bears to children of deployed military personnel, and Joe Kaliko, The Needs Clearing House, Inc., a 501(c)3 that provides a “clearing house” service free of charge, to facilitate the identification and matching of charitable needs with resources from other charitable organizations and individuals to meet those needs. Dinner, dancing to the band “What it Is” and Silent auction capped the night. The raffle winner of the 5 day Napa Valley trip was Phil Platek of Weston - the winning ticket sold by Terence and Laurie Beaty. See the following pages for pictures of the award winners and the night’s celebration. 6 | HBRA of Fairfield County | December2015 to
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