Shine’s 2nd Annual Party – What a Wonderful Evening!

From the moment we first saw the Helen Mills Event Space on West 26th Street, we knew it was the perfect venue for our second annual Shine Global party. Large, airy, with high ceilings, a beautiful deco bar, it is very elegant. Add a wonderful staff – especially Brittany and Scoop – and you have the makings for a special night.

Arriving, the first thing we saw was the fantastic signage over the doors highlighting our sponsors, Shine, and our movies. We had a great crowd – a lot of friends but many new faces as well – and we really appreciated everyone’s attentiveness throughout our presentation. After awarding two long-time volunteers for their service to Shine, we introduced the filmmakers for Shine’s three most current films.

Beginning with Aaron and Amanda Kopp, filmmakers of Liyana, and their very talented animator, Shofela Coker, we also heard from The Wrong Light directors, Josie Swantek Heitz and Dave Adams. We watched trailers for both films before Albie introduced the third, The Eagle Huntress, directed by Otto Bell and Stacey Reis. Otto and Stacey were able to stop by early in the evening before going to do Q&As at two theaters as the film has just opened in NY and LA.

We hope our guests had as much fun as we did. Albie and I want to thank our sponsors – Spike, CNN, Epix, Freeform TV and A. Jaffe Jewelers. Our appreciation also goes to our wonderful board of directors, our board of governors, our host committee, and volunteers. And most of all I want to thank Alex Blaney and Kiana Jackson, without whose help Shine would have ground to a halt years ago. Finally, a special thanks to my dear friend, Ruth Sarlin, for her second tour as silent auction coordinator, and to Board of Directors member Anne Prost for her moving statement about Shine.

Thanks to everyone – especially our sponsors – we doubled our donations from last year! Let’s do this again next year…

Check out the pictures on our Facebook page!