NY BOTANICAL GARDEN WINTER WONDERLAND BALL

The New York Botanical Garden's Annual Winter Wonderland Ball Raises More Than $300,000 for the Garden's Children's Education Program

Presented by Etro and Saks Fifth Avenue, 19th Annual Ball took place on December 15

The New York Botanical Garden celebrated the 19th annual Winter Wonderland Ball on Friday, December 15, 2017. Five hundred guests wearing black tie attire enjoyed the convivial atmosphere, together raising over $300,000 for The New York Botanical Garden's Children's Education Program.

The Winter Wonderland Ball took place in the spectacular Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, the Garden's Victorian-style crystal palace. On view in the Haupt Conservatory was the 26th annual Holiday Train Show®—an exhibition of magnificent model trains winding through a sprawling landscape featuring iconic New York landmarks made of natural materials. The evening began at 7:30 p.m. with cocktails underneath the glistening dome in the Palms of the World Gallery, followed by dinner and dancing.

Proceeds from the event support NYBG's world-renowned Children's Education Program, inspiring youth of all ages, particularly underserved children in the Bronx, with a lifelong connection to nature through innovative workshops and hands-on activities. At the heart of

the program is the Everett Children's Adventure Garden, a 12-acre indoor/outdoor facility featuring themed galleries, interactive exhibits and a changing seasonal landscape that provides a living and dynamic setting for children to explore plant science up close.

Notable guests at the Winter Wonderland Ball included: Nina Agdal*, Samantha Blake Cohen, Caitlin Fitzgerald*, Joey Lico, Mia Moretti*, Ambassador Joseph R. Paolino Jr., Dan Shafer, Pamela Tick*, and Ryan Tick.

Winter Wonderland Ball Chairmen: Alex Assouline, Georgina Bloomberg, Natalie Bloomingdale, Peter Brant Jr., Martin Dawson, Micaela Erlanger, Anne Hathaway, Ariana Rockefeller, Gaby Rosen, and Gillian Hearst Simonds.

Vice Chairmen: Sarah Chilton*, Savannah Engel, Kerry Joyce, May Kwok*, Nicole Meyers, Alexandra Porter, Zack Thain, Timo Weiland.

Honorary Chairmen: Cristina Cuomo*, Emma J.P. Goergen, Alexandra Lebenthal, Alexandra Lind Rose.

Benefit Committee: Brawleigh Alexander, Samantha Angelo, Charlotte Baer, Genevieve Bahrenburg, Carrie Lynn Baker, Julia Fehrenbach Baldwin, Kevin M. Barba, Anna-Nora Bernstein, Meredith Bond, Elizabeth Quinn Brown, Stephanie Ciccone, Samantha Blake Cohen, Allison Commeau, James Corl, Krista Schulz Corl, Francisco Costa, Kipton Cronkite, Benjamin Lebenthal Diamond, Charlotte Lebenthal Diamond, Aubin Dupree, Karly FitzGerald, Carroll Gelderman, Mary Reinehr Gigler, Jihad Harkeem, Wyatt Harris, JoAnna Hartzmark, Kim Hicks, Alecta Rose Hill, Joshua B. Hill, J. Logan Horne, Bernard James, Megan Zilis Jeganathan, Jonathan Keidan, Matthew Kibble, Laura Kornhauser, Elizabeth Kurpis, Alexandra Lanci, Sims Lansing, Katherine Levy, Alexandra Macon, Jack Mandy, Alexandra Manfull, Arianna Margulis, Ted C. Mark, Serena Marron, Amory McAndrew, Devon Reed McCutcheon, Jessica E. McShane, Sara Mendell, Larry Ross Milstein, Toby Anne Milstein, Vanessa Montenegro, Alexandra O'Neill, Mac Osborne, Peter Ostrega, Katherine Parker-Magyar, Alexandra Willkie Pasanen, Lauren Picciano, Michelle Rehlaender, Tripp Rehlaender, Camilla Rockefeller, Patti Ruiz-Healy, Sydney Sadick, Anna Sakellariadis, Alexandra Segalas, Erin Shaffer, Dee Dee Sides, E. Sterling Sipp, Jessica Speiser, Benjamin Thompson, Courtney Urfer Thompson, Joseph Oliver Tobin III, Alexandra Toccin, Michael Toccin, Rachel Waldman, Zachary Weiss, and Ezra William.

*Dressed in Etro

About The New York Botanical Garden

The New York Botanical Garden is an iconic living museum and, since its founding in 1891, has served as an oasis in this busy metropolis. As a National Historic Landmark, this 250-acre site's verdant landscape supports over one million living plants in extensive collections. Last year one million visitors enjoyed the Garden not only for its remarkable diversity of tropical, temperate, and desert flora, but also for programming ranging from renowned exhibitions in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory to festivals on Daffodil Hill.

The Garden is also a major educational institution. More than 300,000 people annually—among them Bronx families, schoolchildren, and teachers—learn about plant science, ecology, and healthful eating through NYBG's hands-on curriculum-based programming. Nearly 90,000 of those visitors are children from underserved neighboring communities, while more than 3,000 are teachers from New York City's public school system participating in professional development programs that train them to teach science courses at all grade levels.

About The Holiday Train Show®

The New York Botanical Garden's Holiday Train Show® showcases Midtown Manhattan in the 26th year of this beloved tradition. New replicas of the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, General Electric Building, and St. Bartholomew's Church from this celebrated district join NYBG's collection of more than 150 New York buildings and landmarks made out of plant parts and enlivened by large-scale model trains. Other visitor favorites include the Brooklyn Bridge, Statue of Liberty, Grand Central Terminal, and the original Yankee Stadium. The Holiday Train Show opened to the public on Wednesday, November 22, 2017 and runs through Monday, January 15, 2018.

In the Holiday Train Show, more than 25 G-scale model trains and trolleys hum along nearly a half-mile of track past re-creations of iconic sites from all five boroughs of New York City, the Hudson River Valley, and other locations in New York State. Artistically crafted by Paul Busse's team at Applied Imagination, all of the New York landmarks are made of natural materials such as bark, twigs, stems, fruit, seeds, and pine cones. American steam engines, streetcars from the late 1800s, and modern freight and passenger trains ride underneath overhead trestles, through tunnels, and across rustic bridges and past waterfalls that cascade into flowing creeks. Thomas the Tank Engine™ and other beloved trains disguised as large colorful insects delight children as they zoom by.