Hollygrove Norma Jean Gala

Hollygrove is an amazing organization that tremendously helps kids and families in Los Angeles. This is the mission statement from their website that explains what they do:

Our Mission Statement

We do whatever it takes to...

--help children, --strengthen families, --build community, and --advocate for systems change

...to ensure that our families thrive.

Escalating Need:

According to the Children's Defense Fund, a child in California is abused or neglected every 4 minutes.
In Los Angeles County alone, 900,000 children live in poverty.
Of the 100,000 foster children in California, 35,000 are in LA County.
Public funding does not cover the complex needs of abused and at-risk children and families.

For 127 years, Hollygrove has been dedicated to helping children and families achieve permanency and well-being.

Every year Hollygrove has their big fundraiser called the Norma Jean Gala. Marilyn Monroe was a child in need at Hollygrove and they continue to channel her inspiration every year with this event. It is a beautiful event that brings Friends of Hollygrove, Volunteers, their Circle of Angles members, and people in the community together to support the organization. Every person that I have met who is involved with Hollygrove is so nice!! Their Director of Development, Cathy Kort, couldn't be nicer! She works so hard and really cares about the organization. Stella Hall is the Gala Chair, and a good family friend. She is so generous and sweet! She does great things for Hollygrove and did an excellent job putting together the Gala this year. My husband and I were so excited to go to the event. We are "Friends of Hollygrove" and it was so nice to be able to go to the event and see how many people are supportive of it as well!

They had some well-known faces there to show their support including Busy Philipps, George Lopez, Debby Ryan, and Diane Ladd.

I will also say… the food was SO GOOD!! Everything was healthy and fresh… in true California style. The event was held at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. They had the entire roof top full of great food vendors as well as wine and cocktails. Along with the food and drink, we got to enjoy beautiful weather with a view of the Hollywood hills and the very chic city of Beverly Hills.

As far as the food goes, the most impressive thing to me was the Schaffer's Genuine "Crudite Garden" that was fresh veggies, potatoes (cooked), and bright greens planted in edible dirt! That's right… edible dirt! It was dried olives… and I can't remember what else (sorry!), but it tasted outstanding and really looked like dirt! They gave you a little bit of "dirt" on your plate, then you picked out whatever else you wanted from the "garden" and then they poured the dressing over it using a watering can. How appropriate! I was very impressed and probably overly excited about the whole thing!

My favorite dessert was the chocolate budino with pomegranate-soaked chia seeds by LYFE Kitchen. It was vegan, but it tasted rich and sinful! The people working the event were so friendly and they gave me a few extra samples of the dessert to take home… I didn't say no.

The event was well done, the food was perfect, and it was all for such a great cause. If you can, I highly suggest donating to Hollygrove. It is an organization with a big heart that helps so many people. To donate click here to be directed to their site! If you live in the Los Angeles area and would like some information on volunteering click here!