If you like sugar as much as the next elf, your sweet tooth was sure to need brushing after the Children of Shelters Candyland-themed Jingle and Mingle party. Even if you don’t eat the four elf food groups (candy, candy cane, candy corn, and syrup,) you were sure to be sweet on the beneficiary, Children of Shelters. The organization works to provide tutoring, music lessons, art supplies, field trips, summer camp, “Anything a kid needs to be a kid” for children in the homeless shelter system, including Compass Family Center, Raphael House, Holy Family Day Home, Mission Dolores Academy, St. Joseph’s Village and Hamilton Family Center. The event features designer wreaths to be auctioned, cocktails to be sipped, air kisses to bestow and receive, and lots of good cheer to be handed around.
A beloved annual celebration, Jingle and Mingle brings out the Heights, Park and Woods dwellers to be holly and jolly at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio. Most of the wreath designers appear as well, both to subtly encourage bidding on their best and to see what their colleagues have concocted. Wreaths conjure all kinds of creativity, from Lia Heath’s silver flip-flops and shells to adorn a bleached beach house, to Ken Linsteadt’s laser-cut brushed steel circle in a square for a modern Glass House, to Ricky Serbin’s sable-swathed constellation of crystal brooches to festoon a powder room or boudoir. Mark Daniel’s wreath referenced the poignant Christmas Eve Truce of 1914, when WWI soldiers from both sides exchanged carols and sweets in No Man’s Land. Will Wick provided a popular best seller, a Dickensian loop of antique books suspended with a leather strap, while Gump’s presented a Chinoiserie cabinet of Christmas, Kelly Wearstler got to the point with pencils, and the combination of Jay Jeffers and Paul Benson produced a machine-turned steel sculpture that made this scribe swoon. Equally memorable wreaths were wrought by Anthem Home, Battersea, Danielle Design, dogfork lamp arts Douglas Durkin, Fiori, Gil Mendez, J. Weiss, Jim Avila, Sculpt Gardens, Shell Cardon, Barbara Scavullo, Penelope Rozis, Restoration Hardware, Claudia Ross, Madina Aryeh, Mandy Scott, Martha Angus, Katharine Webster, Lawanna Cathleen, Charles de Lisle, Kevin Colangelo, John K. Anderson and CJ Bishop, Kerri Zaldestani, Flowers Claire Marie, Northbrook Design, Tienke Designs, Fringe Studio, Anamar Interiors, Artistic Designs for Living, Ashfield Hansen Design, Kimberly Ayres, Sue Fisher King, Tish Key, Shirley Robinson and Steven Volpe, among others. The energy of the auction compels much circulating to see which ones are being bid upon, and by whom.
The event décor was whipped up by Ken Fulk, who, along with the Doors Number 1, 2, and 3 display provided roving candy girls (not the Diablo Cody kind) to stir the copper kettle and sell raffle tickets. A dazzling rough-cut diamond bracelet was also offered on auction, the kind that would wreath your wrist and keep your eyes twinkling all year long. Fortunately, Fork and Spoon catering also provided filet sandwiches and panzanella salad to offset the insulin rush, to be washed down on the wings of Grey Goose, along with Terra Valentina and Recuerdo wines. With the cash registers jingling from well-received funds raised, and the merry makers mingling to hail the holidays, a super-sweet time was had by all.
Amongst the naughty and nice: Children of Shelters Founder Lois Pavlow, Co-Presidents Serena Fairchild Sheldon and Summer Tompkins Walker and Executive Committee leaders Sarah Moore, Heidi Castelein, Kate Sheridan Chung, Maryam Muduroglu, and Alison Kiley, and superstaffer Mandy Paige. Randi Fisher, Vanessa Getty, Marybeth LaMotte, Christine Aylward, Malin Giddings, Melissa Barber, Frank Caufield, Claudia Juestel, Sarah Lynch, Daru Kawalkowski, Lisa Podos, as well as a handsome huddle of husbands all shared the sugarplums. Many Children of Shelters Board Members supported the sweetness, including Lana Adair, Lindsay Bolton, Natasha Bradley, Jenna Liddel Hunt, Emily Martin, Annie Robinson Woods, Ash Shah, Anne Pedrero, Monica Pauli, Susan Mallen, Erin Lowenberg, Meredith Levy, Monica Coakley, Whitney Chiate, Nicole Ancelovici-Lenihan, Patrick Herning, Kathryn Freeman, Jessica Kaludis, and Jo Labagh. And when the last merry maker mingled and the last bell jingled, the sound was sweet indeed.
Check back on SFWire soon for a gallery of all the fabulous wreaths auctioned off at this year’s Jingle & Mingle!
