Cheryl Ladd is an Angel

Honoree Cheryl Ladd Helps Food For The Poor Build Homes

	Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma presents Cheryl Ladd with the Ambassador For The Poor award at the Jan. 22, 2015 Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala.
Related Items: Donate to Build a Home See Cheryl Ladd's Trip to Haiti See Photos from the Gala and Pre-Events

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (January 27, 2015) – Food For The Poor Executive Director Angel Aloma named actress Cheryl Ladd an Ambassador For The Poor at the charity’s 12th annual Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2015, at The Mar-a-Lago Club.

“This was the most successful Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala ever,” said Arlette Gordon, Gala Co-Chair.

“Cheryl Ladd is a woman of substance,” said Aloma as he introduced Ladd to the crowd of more than 175, and talked about getting to know her through her work with the charity.

Since 2011, Ladd has championed the needs of the destitute as spokesperson for Food For The Poor’s Angels Of The Poor program. During the gala’s live house rally, homes for 25 destitute families were pledged to be built in Jamaica. A generous donor has committed to match the number of homes raised.

Ladd and her husband, Brian Russell, traveled to Haiti from Jan. 20-21 with Food For The Poor representatives to see firsthand the dire situation of destitute families. The extreme poverty they saw a day before the charity’s gala was in stark contrast to the opulence of The Mar-a-Lago Club.

“I admire you for so many reasons,” said Aloma. “Especially for the many lives you have saved, and for going to Haiti. You are a woman of great faith.”

“Many times we had to stop filming because she was overwhelmed with emotion,” said Aloma. “The extreme heat from the sun beating down on the homes of plastic and metal did not deter Cheryl from entering the dirt-floor homes we visited to meet the poor. We saw many of her tears on this trip.”  

“To be in the presence of a warrior for the poor is a privilege,” said Ladd, of Aloma as he presented her with a statue of Christ as a beggar. “I know I was supposed to come and be with you tonight. I have seen what happens when you hold back death.”

Ladd’s eyes teared up as she relayed a message from one of the mothers she met while in Haiti: “You bring us so much hope, and you are an answer to our prayers. I want you to know I will be praying for you. God will speak through you to help us.”

“I hope that tonight you will open your hearts and answer the prayers of children and families living in severe poverty,” said Ladd. “Together we can bring hope and a chance for a better tomorrow for so many who fight a daily battle to survive.”

The gala was chaired by distinguished Palm Beach philanthropists Melania and Donald J. Trump (National Honorary Chairs), Patrick Park (Honorary Chair), Arlette Gordon and Elizabeth Bowden (Gala Co-Chairs), Hermé de Wyman Miro (International Chair), Mary Frances Turner (Ladies' Committee Chair) and Russell Sherrill (Gentlemen's Committee Chair).

The Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala opened with a superb wine-tasting reception provided by Dreyfus Ashby & Co. and Trump Winery, and culminated with a five-course gourmet dinner and wine pairing.

Live auction items included a Joseph Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches double magnum, signed by winemakers Laurent Drouhin and Veronique Drouhin, and by request at the gala by Gordon and Ladd – a Kaufmann de Suisse handmade 18-karat yellow gold and stainless steel callista amethyst bangle – a 12-course dinner for 25 guests prepared by Chef Ron Duprat, a star on the reality TV show “Top Chef” – and a week vacation in Italy. Additional exotic escapes, jewelry, handbags, fine wines, and golf packages were among the varied prizes in the silent auction.

The Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures 2015 committee members included Irma Anapol, Michael Cinque, Michael Dixon, Jean Dolan, Barbara Gilbert, Emilio Guerra, Lorrain and Malcolm Hall, Helene Karp, Moneca Kaufmann, Faith Morford, Michael Nadeau, Sally O’Connor, Daniella and Alfredo Ortiz, Carol Weltz, and Gail Worth.

Gala benefactors included Elizabeth Bowden, Michael Dixon, Helen Bernstein-Fealy, Arlette Gordon, Lorrain and Malcolm Hall, Helene Karp, Patrick Park (Park Foundation), Herme de Wyman Miro (The International Society of Palm Beach), Russ Reid, and UBS.

This year, members of Food For The Poor’s Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala committee hosted pre-event parties at two Worth Avenue stores. A percentage of the proceeds from sales at both events were donated to the gala’s house-building initiative in Jamaica. Moneca Kaufmann hosted a kickoff reception at Kaufmann de Suisse Jewelry Designers on Dec. 4, and Daniella and Alfredo Ortiz’s pre-event party at the Daniella Ortiz store on Worth Ave. on Jan. 13.

For additional information about Fine Wines & Hidden Treasures gala, please call 1-888-404-4248 or email carolc@foodforthepoor.org.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.