Top of the Block! Madison Avenue, Shopping, Dining & Smiles

Thirteen shops will participate in Top of the Block on August 12th to benefit Operation Smile
Please join Alisyn Camerota, myself, Robin Meltzer and Anne Sylvester for shopping, smiles and fun!

One of the most amazing things about all of the volunteer work I have done with Operation Smile is how many people have stepped forward to help me in the past four years to help me raise money for them.  So many wonderful people have donated or offered to help raise money it is truly incredible. All of this giving in the spirit of friendship has given me so much happiness I could never possibly repay all these people.  It has inspired my belief that all of us have the ability to #triggerhappiness with kind gestures and by supporting our loved ones and others in need.  

Amy and friends at our 2012 Operation Smile party

On August 12th, I will be co-hosting an event called #topoftheblock on Madison Avenue with three amazing ladies all of whom have been so wonderful to me. Before I tell you about my beautiful co-hostesses, the woman behind this wonderful event is fashion PR extraordinaire and branding expert Amy Rosi. Amy and I have been friends for more than 15 years, and it is one of those friendships where I can't even remember how we met, although I suspect it was through Fashion Group International many moons ago.  We share a love of the fashion and beauty industries, and over the years, we have often consulted and collaborated with each other on business.  

Amy Rosi and Peter Rosenthal at the Operation Smile Gala 2014

Amy and her partner Peter Rosenthal, were at our first Operation Smile party at our home in 2010 and have been supporting us ever since.  First, by nominating me for an Open Hearts Award from Jane Seymour's Open Hearts Foundation which garnered not only a wonderful donation from the Foundation but also brought great attention to our Three Little Bears project (operationsmile.org/bears).  I will forever cherish accepting my award in Carnegie Hall and having the orchestra and audience sing happy birthday to my son Zachary who turned 12 that night.  

Zack and his friends with the beautiful Jane Seymour

Amy's firm represents the Madison Avenue Business Improvement District which is spearheading Top of the Block, and she recommended they support Operation Smile on August 12th.  We met with all of the stores yesterday, listed on the above invite, and they are very enthusiastic. Shopping will be from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and 15% of all sales will go to Operation Smile.  From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., my co-hostesses and I will be in the shops for mini cocktail parties, with wine provided by Premier Cru, along with Operation Smile representatives and other donors, to celebrate and to answer questions.  I hope you can join us!  Tweet #topoftheblock, #operationsmile, instagram photos of shop windows and most of all, come shopping!

After the shopping, we invite you to make a reservation at Ristorante Morini for dinner (also donating 15%), we will be there enjoying a great Italian meal!

#triggerhappiness -- my co-hostesses

Alisyn Camerota and I met several years ago, through our husbands, who went to business school together at Northwestern. When we met, Alisyn was the co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend, I had my PR firm, and we had so many business interests in common. Over the years, as mothers, girls and professionals, our friendship has become so much more and we are now each other's biggest fans. She is beautiful inside and out.  She was the first person to interview my boys and I, for a national program about the Three Little Bears in 2011.  She served as emcee of our second fundraiser at our home in 2012, and says 'YES' every time I need a helping hand with whatever new idea I have.  She has just joined CNN as an anchor and I know that she has so much success yet ahead.

Alisyn Camerota & Kristie Porcaro from Operation Smile in 2012

A the 2013 Operation Smile Gala

Anne Sylvester, "Annie", and I have been close friends since we were freshmen in high school back in Lafayette, California.  Anne, a managing director for JP Morgan, and I had lost touch for some years back in our 20s and 30s, when careers and kids were going full throttle, but we were blessedly reunited a few years ago.  Annie and I share the DNA of childhood, something that, for two California girls far from home cannot be underestimated.  It is a strange thing to love your life, and the life my husband and I have created on the East Coast and yet, so desperately miss my home.  Annie understands this like no one else.  She is now a 'city' gal through and through, complete with four kids, a dog and a beautiful home on the Upper West Side, -- I am a 'country' gal living in Connecticut with three kids and a dog, and we are more connected than ever.  I am so happy she is co-hosting with me.  

Anne and I at my home in 2012 for our second Operation Smile fundraiser

With all my Cali #girls at the Operation Smile gala in NYC 2014
Susie, Kathy, me, Janet and Annie

And finally, my friend Robin Meltzer, who I met through my PR firm's work for the Alzheimer's Association and the Rita Hayworth Gala.  Robin is one of those people who just gets it.  Maybe it is because she is a psychologist and a working mother but, really I think it is because Robin is just a wonderful woman.

When Robin chaired the Rita Hayworth Gala in 2012, we went to lunch to discuss the event and chatted about our personal and professional lives. In the last five years of my PR business when I had begun to do so much non profit work, you got to know clients and board members on a whole different level.  Because people are often involved with charities for very personal reason (both of our families have experience with Alzheimer's), it offers you an opportunity to get to know people in a way that you might not if you are promoting a lipstick or vodka for instance.

With Robin Meltzer at tne New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
(a former LLC client and a wonderful organization)

Nicole Sexton and Robin Meltzer at the 2014 Operation Smile Gala

Immediately after that first lunch, Robin purchased two bears and it really touched my heart.  Since then, we have become even closer and I am so happy that she is joining me as a co-host for Top of the Block.  

Both my husband and I are far from the homes where we grew up and when you don't have the benefit of being surrounding by family, your friends become your family and share all the different milestones in your life.  I am so lucky to have these women and so many more, in my life.  They #triggerhappiness for me me all the time.  Have a great day!

Look for our Three Little Bears on Madison Avenue August 12th ,
tweet #topoftheblock #threelittlebears when you see them!