Hats in the Belfry

I mean, who didn’t think I wasn’t going to make that the title of this post?  By the way, I’ve given up on doing posts in chronological or even reverse chronological order. There are literally 14 posts that need to get up with photos so this weekend between Patron, Ball on the Mall and Mother’s Day, we’ll get them up for you … perhaps by that time, there will be 20 articles to post.  Good thing I don’t need sleep (yeah right).

The hats were out in full force for the 3rd annual Trust for the National Mall luncheon on the National Mall.  If you were anywhere near the area behind the American History Museum during lunchtime Thursday, you would have seen a traffic jam, huge tents, and what looked to be a version of Middleburg meets Central Park.  Eight hundred guests attended this seen and be seen civilized Washingtonian luncheon, all to benefit the Trust for the National Mall, which is a true example of a public private partnership.  The Trust, which was founded three years ago by developer John “Chip” Akridge and his wife Sally, is the non-profit partner of the National Park Service.

Because of 30 years of deferred maintenance (remember, our state elected officials want their dollars to go to highways in their own states) the amount it will take to bring America’s Front Yard back to the “best national park in the world” is … over $400 million dollars. That’s not even counting the infrastructure it will take to make that happen.  Thanks to private donors and corporate support, we have been able to raise, as Akridge announced at the luncheon, over $1.5 million.  The L’Enfant Society, the young professionals arm, has raised over $500,000 in just one year since its inception.  The Ball on the Mall this weekend, with 700 people expected to swarm the tents, has raised over $350,000 alone too. (30 million visitors walked on the Mall last year and there are 3,000 events that take place on the space annually).

Whew.  But this is just the beginning.  As in the model of Central Park, we need the help of Congressmen (thanks to Jim Moran who has been instrumental), our Federal officials (Secretary Salazar has publicly stated that he wants the Mall to be 1 of his 2 legacies before he leaves – he was unable to be there in person yesterday because of the Gulf issues, but sent his congratulations to the Trust), community individuals (the list is long, extensive and high profile) as well as corporate sponsors (again, the list is long, but could be longer! and high profile think Coca Cola, Disney, Microsoft, Clark, Verizon, Pepco, Safeway, etc).

The cuisine (Design Cuisine) was absolutely delicious as we enjoyed chilled avocado and cucumber soup, chipotle grilled tenderloin (I had a veggie version of course) and cinnamon churros with Mexican Chocolate Soup as we listened to a few speeches and words of inspiration from Walter Isaacson (above).

It was just a beautiful, gorgeous day, the first luncheon where it did not rain, so when we left with our parting gifts of red umbrellas, the group looked kind of silly walking on the sun with them, however, we were for sure glad we didn’t need them like in years past.

Thank you to all who came out and see you at Ball on the Mall…

More photos from Trust Luncheon