Before the deluge, the night was weirdly warm. Which could also describe the action inside the house at Hammertown Barn on Saturday, November 15. Culminating a week of on-line silent auction bidding, attendees came bent on winning. With continued federal and state support looking less likely by the day, everyone understands that it's our obligation to keep our local charitable and cultural institutions afloat. In that spirit, supporters of the Berkshire-Taconic Community Foundation and it's subsidiaries, the Northeast Dutchess Fund and the Fund for Columbia County, gathered for a pour of unusually fine wines, provided by Neal Rosenthal (at left, signing his book, Reflections of a Wine Merchant, for Jon Arneson), accompanied by an outpouring of generosity.
Bent on winning, last-minute bidders calculate their moves.
Anna Hirschorn and Elizabeth Beier; Neal Rosenthal and Kerry Madigan
Cartoonist Liza Donnelly, Lyndon Preston, and the evening's hostess Joan Osofsky
Rosemary Lyons and Beth Ledy, both of the Fund for Columbia County, flank Amy Gold
Lucinda Ross and her husband ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross flank Brooke Lehman and web designer Gregg Osofsky
John Arneson and Peter Gleason, both of the Northeast Dutchess Fund; Heidi Stanvick, who offered samples of her Vervacious line of flavorings, with Carol Smillie
Visiting from Watkins Glen, Betsy Galbraith takes the rare mid-November night air with her sister Gail Cashen, of the Fund for Columbia County.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
