Cute Champagne-Sipping Crowd Gathers at River Oaks Home to Kick Off Handmade Hope Gala

Cute Champagne-Sipping Crowd Gathers at River Oaks Home to Kick Off Handmade Hope Gala

Tiffany LaRose; Adam Greer; Brooke Bentley Gunst

ANOTHER LATE-SUMMER successful kickoff event bodes well for a busy fall social season ahead — even amid Delta fears.


A beautiful River Oaks home was the site of a party kicking off Homemade Hope's "Home Is Where the Heart Is Gala." Brooke Bentley Gunst and her husband Jeff Gunst opened hosted a chic and breezy "indoor-outdoor event … in anticipation of Homemade Hope's annual fundraising event," explained a rep for the event's organizers.

A good-looking crowd, undaunted by soaring temps, and dressed in colorful late-summer frocks and just-before-Labor-Day whites, also sipped Champagne, enjoyed a wine tasting and noshed on charcuterie.

The gala for Homemade Hope — which nurtures and empowers homeless children living in Houston-area shelters, teaching them how to cook nutritious foods, developing their life skills and providing them with emotional and academic support, per the org's mission statement — will take place Oct. 8 at River Oaks Country Club. The gala will have a unique spin: options for indoor or outdoor seating.

Spotted at the kickoff: Blair Bentley, Schuyler Evans, Adam Greer, Brooke Bentley Gunst and Jeff Gunst, Scarlett and Scott Hankey, Tiffany LaRose, Margot Delaronde Marcell and Josh Marcell, Lila Sharifian, and Lisa and Dennis Woods.

Kelly and Sina Fahrtash

Dennis and Lisa Woods

Claudia and Shane Philips; Vina Nichols

Jeff and Brooke Gunst

Lila Sharifian and Omid Sharifian

Michelle and Mike Mann; Margot Delaronde Marcell and Josh Marcell

Nillie Shoukry, Shannon Smith, Tiffany LaRose

Scott and Scarlett Hankey

Young Son; Gabriela Bahlo

Parties
Fall Philanthropy Report: Children’s Assessment Center Touts ‘Healing’ for Child Abuse Victims

What is your mission? The Children’s Assessment Center (The CAC) provides healing services to over 6,300 child sexual abuse victims and their families each year. We offer forensic interviewing, family advocacy, mental health services, medical care, and court services at no cost. We facilitate community outreach and prevention training to raise awareness about child abuse in our community and how to keep children safe. Last year, we provided prevention training to over 35,000 community members, including 23,500 children in schools.

Keep Reading Show less

What is your mission? Launched in 2006, Kids’ Meals’ mission is to end childhood hunger in Houston by delivering free, healthy meals year-round to the doorsteps of Houston’s hungriest preschool-aged children and through collaboration, provide their families with resources to end the cycle of poverty.

Keep Reading Show less

What year was your organization launched? 1986 by a small group of committee community members that believed special needs children were not receiving basic life services.

Keep Reading Show less