You like lunch, right?
You love Saratoga, especially during racing season, yes?
If you’re like me, most of your days at the exquisite Saratoga Race Course are spent dressing caj, hanging with your usual posse of associates.
Nothin’ wrong with that: a perfectly fine way to spend the race meet.
But if you’re also like me, now and then you like to mix it up, donning a pretty sundress, strappy sandals and your favorite summer lipstick. Maybe even a fabulous new hat.
Or you may be a well-heeled lady, for whom every day at the races does mean looking snappy and sitting in the Clubhouse. Whichever your usual gig, you’re invited to come together on a balmy July day to celebrate the Year of the Horse and to help others who need you.
This, my friends, is a wonderful opportunity: enjoy a delicious lunch–bid on singularly-lovely items in a silent auction, and in the process–help raise money which will change the lives of others…
The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation is offering you–yes, YOU–The Perfect Opportunity to show off that new dress and perky hat–to dine in an historic, elegant environment and to mingle with women who’ve made their mark in horse racing. (Just being in the same room with great racing women like Charlotte C. Weber, Terrill Brown, Abby Castellano and Sally Hill is worth the cost of admission, alone.)
The annual Fashionable Fillies Luncheon, sponsored by the Jockey Club Safety Net
Foundation, will roll into the Hall of Springs (on the grounds of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center) on Monday, July 28th.
And you are invited.
The luncheon will benefit The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation and Shelters of Saratoga, an organization with which every Saratogian is familiar. More on these two very worthy groups in a minute…
Many women who aren’t to the manor born assume that fabulous events like this luncheon aren’t meant for them–but oh, they are. Whether you’re a local to the Saratoga region or a visitor who’s coming to Saratoga for the races–your presence is very welcome.
I don’t want to seem tacky, but lest you’re not aware: all non-profit organizations can offer their contributors this benefit: the $150 that you’ll spend on your ticket will be tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed on April 15 next year. (I’m not sure the percentage.) (But what a sweet memory t’will spring to your mind, as you’re banging your head against the wall, filling out that tax form. You can think back to this beautiful July day–all the fun you had–and all the people whom you helped, just by eating lunch.)
🙂
If you have the desire–and you want to be in the center of if all–you are invited, my friends.
Now, let me tell you a bit about where your ticket (and silent auction) money will go:
The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation is an unsung organization: too many race fans aren’t aware of the good works that they do, precisely because they don’t toot their own trumpets. But their quiet goodness doesn’t prevent me from tooting it on their behalf. The Foundation’s Mission, from their website, reads simply:
The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation is a charitable trust which provides, on a confidential basis, financial relief and assistance to needy members of the Thoroughbred industry and their families.
… Assistance can come in any number of forms, including financial aid, medication, surgical and hospital costs, therapeutic equipment, voice-recognition computers for quadriplegics and wheelchair-accessible vans, among other needs.
That, IMHO, is an amazing list of services. And it only scratches the surface.
“Established in 1943 with donations from the five distinct racetracks in New York at the time — Aqueduct, Belmont, Empire City, Jamaica and Saratoga — The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation is maintained under the auspices of The Jockey Club and is guided by a three-member Board of Trustees, all of whom are members of The Jockey Club.”*
This is not a new or inexperienced organization. The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation has been around for 70+ years, meeting needs of the horse racing community, every day of every year. Clearly, this is an organization you want to support–for in supporting the Foundation, you are doing myriad things for many good people. People without whom horse racing could not exist. Like all of us–all of us–at one time or another, the recipients of the Foundation’s kindness need an occasional hand.You can be the fingers on that hand. Imagine that: what a gift, to invite you to participate in this extraordinary mission.
And Shelters of Saratoga–I know. Visitors to the Spa City see Broadway–the tracks–the polo fields–and Beekman Street’s arts district. They/you see the gorgeous Victorian buildings–the many springs under Greek pavilions and world-class restaurants.
Surely, Saratoga has no homeless people? Surely, everyone in this magnificent place has enough food–a place to sleep–and good work to do?
Not so much. Shelters of Saratoga would not exist, were there no need. And there is a need–not just for the provision of necessities for their clients, but for the raising of awareness in the community and greater Saratoga County. Saratoga does have homeless people,and they deserve to be treated with dignity, as human souls whose lives can be resurrected.
This, from Shelters of Saratoga’s website:
Shelters of Saratoga, through the provision of housing, services, referral, information and advocacy, strives to ensure that those in the greater Saratoga region who are homeless or at risk of homelessness have safe, affordable and secure places to live.
The fact that The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation shares the stage with Shelters of Saratoga–again, In My Humble Opinion–confirms the amazingly beneficent intentions of The Jockey Club–that they strive to take care of racing’s own, AND of Saratoga’s own.
You can contribute to this good act of great love, and all you have to do is one simple thing
contact
Nancy Kelly at The Jockey Club:
nkelly@jockeyclub.com
(212) 521-5305
[After July 16, call her in Saratoga: (518) 226-0609.]
And for those of you who scrolled down, because you don’t have the patience to read an entire article. (See? I’m on to you–I know your reading habits…) 😉
Who: The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation presents
What: Fashionable Fillies Luncheon
When: Monday, July 28, 2014
* 11:30AM: Silent Auction
* 1PM: Luncheon, followed by a fashion show courtesy of Torso Lingerie Studio and Encounter Boutique.
Where: Hall of Springs
Why: You know why
How: Call, email Nancy Kelly. In case you missed it above, here’s her contact info again:
nkelly@jockeyclub.com
(212) 521-5305
[After July 16, call her in Saratoga: (518) 226-0609.]
The RSVP deadline is July 21, but it would be wise of you to call/email Nancy ASAP. The Saratoga meet will begin in just a few days–Opening Day will flow into other days and nights–and before you know it, it’s July 28th and you forgot to say, YES. Get your reservation in before you’re out of luck. She who hesitates is lost, indeed.
You may decide to come for all the benefits on the surface: food, bev, conversation, treasures in the silent auction, fashion show.
You may realize that this is a wonderful way to help raise money for two very worthy organizations.
This may be the year that you decide to step outside your comfort zone, and jump into the world of philanthropy–raising funds for causes that stir your heart. (The Jockey Club Safety Net Foundation and Shelters of Saratoga are two causes that deserve your attention, yes?) In pushing yourself outside the seeming safety of your comfort zone and becoming a philanthropist, you also challenge yourself to meet new people–exciting people. Perhaps it’s an environment that’s unfamiliar to you, but once you’re there–I promise, you’ll have an amazing time.
And next year at this time–events like this will be…old hat…to you.
🙂
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