A surprise can be the last thing a benefit organizer wants — or needs. But the one Peter Kudla sprang on Linda and Jimmy Yip was a welcome one, indeed.
As the live auction at their Nathan Yip Foundation Dinner on Saturday night was drawing to a close, Kudla, the founder and president of Metropolitan Homes, stepped to the microphone and offered up a dinner for 16. “I’m just back from the Amalfi coast (of Italy), and boy, do I have some recipes,” he announced before leading a lively bidfest that ended with an $8,000 high bid from Eric Mohr and Krista Agramonte Mohr.
The interesting part is that Krista chaired the evening’s silent auction; her husband is a partner in the insurance division of Peliton, one of the benefit’s major sponsors.
Kudla, who can cook as well as he can build, has hosted numerous food-oriented events for local charities, including Project PAVE and The Children’s Hospital.
The 374 guests who were at the Cable Center on Saturday night raised more than $100,000 for the Nathan Yip Foundation and its mission of building schools and orphanages in Third World countries. The foundation was begun after Nathan, Jimmy and Linda Yip’s only child, died in an automobile accident.
7News anchor Anne Trujillo, who has emceed for each of the six years that the benefit has been held, did a wonderful job of keeping the festivities moving, introducing the Shaolin Hung Mei traditional Chinese lion dancers, who entertained the crowd with the dance of happiness, well-being and prosperity, and the traditional salmon-salad “toss to prosperity.”
Trujillo encouraged everyone at each table to stand and toss the salad with their chopsticks to ensure a prosperous new year. “The higher you toss, the greater your fortunes,” she explained.
Her husband, Steve Kalush, owner of Kalush Video Productions, was also at the event. He volunteered his time and worked with Jimmy Yip over the last few months to produce a heartwarming video that shared a close-up of Nathan Yip’s life and a view of the many projects and children around the world touched by the work of the Nathan Yip Foundation.
The dinner chaired by foundation board member David Thomson was catered by Pho Fusion Asian and was preceded by piano music by Cherry Creek High School freshman Sabrina Luo, whose father, James Luo, is the Yips’ godson.
Anna and John Sie were there with Anna’s sister, Rosa Maglione, from Italy; and their daughters Michelle Sie Whitten; Susan Sie, an architect from New York who designed the Sies’ Cherry Hills Village home; and Debbie Sie Hoffman, a naturopath from Santa Fe. Sons-in-law Tom Whitten and Justin Hoffman rounded out the party.
Gerry and Fred Miale (he is a partner in several business ventures with the Yips and she is a member of the Nathan Yip Foundation board) brought their daughters, Cara Miale and her friend Johnny Goman, and Gwen Miale and her friend Ian Resler.
The Nathan Yip Foundation subsidizes teacher salaries at the Arbol del Vida Children’s Home near Juarez, Mexico, which provides food, clothing and shelter to over 65 orphans. Kevin Centola, a firefighter who helped build the orphanage, and his wife, Luz, were at the event, too.
Read more about who was there in my Seen First blog:
Society editor Joanne Davidson: 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com
