SF do-gooders plunge in to help out
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
10/07/09 11:01 AM PDT
The great beauty of San Francisco isn’t always found in its natural landscape, its penchant for tolerance and its embrace of things both wild and crazy.
The city has a big heart, which it wears with a stylish handbag stuffed with cash.
Despite the severe economic downturn and a huge jump in unemployment, those with a little extra continue to hand it over to causes great and many. Last week, Friends of the Children, a non-profit that provides teaching mentors to disadvantaged children from the first through the 12th grade, raised nearly $100,000 at an event in which former Mayor Willie Brown was honored and only slightly roasted by my old colleague, Chronicle columnist Phil Matier.
And then this week, the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, a nonprofit that builds affordable housing in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods for low-income residents, raised slightly more than $220,000 at its annual Celebrity Pool Toss at the Phoenix Hotel. Among those braving the cold to go into the drink for charity were John Goldman, president of the San Francisco Symphony, Patricia Breslin, executive director of the San Francisco Hotel Council and David Landis, the public relations magician at the company which bears his name.
It’s times like these that San Francisco shows its true character. The city’s politics can be mean, but its streets are not.
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