Los Angeles Benefit: 2008

This year's Adoption Institute Los Angeles Benefit, held on October 23, was a great success in every way, continuing the growth and presence of the Institute on the West Coast. Event hosts and adoptive parents Sue Naegle (President of HBO Entertainment) and Dana Gould (comedian and long-time writer on "The Simpsons") graciously opened their home to more than 80 guests. Actors Laura Dern, Zach Braff, Famke Janssen, Scott Lowell, Victoria Rowell, Regina Taylor, Nanci Christopher, and Taylor Treadwell joined other entertainment industry movers and shakers and adoption supporters to help raise funds, and to learn more about the Institute's efforts to make adoption work better for everyone it touches.

The event netted more than $70,000, assisted by attendees and donors, silent auction bidders, and generous corporate sponsors, including HBO; Creative Artists Agency; United Talent Agency Foundation; the Oprah Winfrey Network (Discovery); William Morris Agency; NBC Universal; Warner Bros.; Hansen, Jacobsen, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman, LLP; and Myman Abell Fineman, Fox Greenspan & Light LLP. To see the full list of the event's corporate sponsors, click here.

Silent auction items included a high-end automatic watch donated by Richmont L.A; a luxury accessories package including two La Loop necklaces and Robert Marc eyeglasses; a two-night ocean-front stay at Casa del Mar; three collectible designer Barbies donated by Mattell; a chance to have your child do a voice over, and have a likeness appear as a character, in an episode of the PBS animated series Curious George (donated through NBC Universal); meals at local restaurants, including Breeze at the Century Park Hyatt Hotel and Bar Marmont; a custom made dress by Mellisa Masse; a basket of DVDs from Showtime; and a catered dinner for 10 by Kari Ann Lauritzen, who also provided the delicious food for the event.

Los Angeles-based Adoption Institute Board members Christine Solomon and Peter Levine were joined by Chicago-based Julie Tye, Institute Board Treasurer and President of the Cradle, and New York-based Susan Notkin, new Board President, and Sandy Kresch, former Board President and current Chair of the Board's Governance Committee, who traveled across the country to attend the event.

Event co-hosts, and adoptive parents, Sue Naegle, President of HBO Entertainment, and comedian/writer Dana Gould	Adoption Institute Board President Susan Notkin; actor, director, screenwriter and producer Zach Braff; his mother, Anne Brodzinsky, Ph.D. (psychologist, author, and wife of David Brodzinsky, Ph.D., the Adoption Institute's Research and Project Director); and Institute Executive Director Adam Pertman
Adoption Institute Board member Christine Solomon, actress Famke Janssen and boyfriend Cole Frates, and Institute Board member (and host of last year's LA Benefit), Peter Levine of CAA.	Host Sue Naegle, Academy Award-nominated actress and film director/producer Laura Dern, and Institute Executive Director Adam Pertman
Adoption Institute Board President Susan Notkin with Nanci Christopher, actress and author of "And Baby Makes Two - an Adoption Tale"	Attachment therapist Fanny Magier, with her son Andy, and actress and writer Victoria Rowell, founder of a foundation assisting children in foster care
Golden Globe-winning actress and playwright Regina Taylor with Adoption Institute Board Treasurer, and President of The Cradle, Julie Tye	Event Co-Host Sue Naegle and Sam Hagler and his wife, Sandra D. Kresch, who is past Adoption Institute Board President and current Chair of the Board Governance Committee
Guests peruse the offerings at the event's silent auction.	Event Co-host Dana Gould serves as auctioneer in the live auction.