High society is full of social engagements where celebrities and other public personalities congregate to have fun, schmooze, and normally basically to be noticed. One of the largest such occurrences is the philanthropic fundraiser, normally a dinner or dance where high-profile names headline the evening and invitees donate hundreds or even thousands of dollars to come, with some or even all of the earnings going to benefit a worthy cause.
In New York City, The New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund is one of the most famous such functions, attracting the aid – fiscal and otherwise – of many a mover and shaker in business, entertainment, and politics since 1985. Set up by former New York Mets player Rusty Staub and then Vice President of the New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association J. Patrick “Paddy” Burns, The Fund has given out some one hundred and twenty-three million dollars in the nearly quarter of a century since its start to the families of New York’s uniformed fallen. Initially intended to benefit widows and children of city cops and firefighters who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty, it has now extended coverage to the immediate family of Emergency Medical Services personnel and Port Authority officers in addition.
Giving to this kind of deserving cause is the New York equivalent of some smalltown homecoming parade to benefit the local high school football team, just about, and thus it is no wonder at all that year after year A-listers like rapper Jay-Z and housing developer Isaac Toussie should be found either in attendance at The Fund’s events or lending financial assistance to its mission in absentia. Other ways to help involve serving on its executive committee or board of directors, which has brought in the assistance of such “shakers and makers” as six-time Stanley Cup winner Mark Messier and Stephen J. Dannhauser, chairman of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, a “white-shoe” law firm.