2nd Annual Steve Harvey Foundation Gala
STEVE HARVEY FOUNDATION RAISES OVER $600,000 AT 2ND ANNUAL STEVE HARVEY FOUNDATION GALA
Harvey Honors Tyler Perry, Chris & Malaak Rock and Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company
NEW YORK CITY (April 5, 2011) – On April 4, 2011 at New York’s Cipriani Wall Street, multi-faceted entertainer Steve Harvey andSherri Shepherd of The View co-hosted the 2nd Annual Steve Harvey Foundation Gala to support the Steve Harvey Mentoring Weekend for Young Men. On this rousing night, 500 friends, family members and supporters were on hand including Russell Simmons, Gayle King, Boris Kodjoe, New York Giant Justin Tuck and more to applaud honorees Tyler Perry, Chris and Malaak Rock, and Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company who were all recognized with the Steve Harvey Foundation’s Helping Hand Award. The event raised more than $600,000 for the Steve Harvey Foundation and one of its staple programs, the Steve Harvey Mentoring Weekend for Young Men.
The 2nd annual gala was not only a night filled with laughs from Harvey, Shepherd and Rock, but also served as an inspiring call to action to help young men. Says Harvey, “I continue to be inspired by the generosity shown by all the friends and supporters who came out tonight. Marjorie and I are so grateful and will use this money in the spirit it has been given – to change the lives of young men around the world.”
Sponsored by American Airlines, Ford Motor Company, State Farm, JPMorgan Chase, Essence Magazine and Neiman Marcus, the fundraising evening was highlighted by a dynamic and engaging performance from multiple Grammy Award winning saxophonist David Sanborn.
Root Magazine’s Editor In Chief Robert Hasan James interviewed Tyler Perry on the Red Carpet and here is what he had to say about Hollywood and why the movie “For Colored Girls” was shut out of the Oscars:
“There are millions of Tyler Perry supporters around the world, nobody is angry and nobody is upset. I live in positivity and I don’t feed into the negativity. The Oscars is political and they have their committees and they let who they want to play, play. I don’t know how to play the game..maybe one day I will understand it, but I will never play the game. What is important to me more than anything is that I can make a movie like “For Colored Girls” that sat on the shelf for 35 years, and now a whole generation of people have seen it”.
Here is what The View’s Sheri Shepherd had to say about her upcoming nuptials:
“I just realized I have three and a half months before I get married! I have not gotten my gown, my shoes…nothing! My fiancee is already together but I got 50 more people to invite and only five slots left at the wedding so we are in a little bit of a conundrum”.
The beautiful Co-host of the Steve Harvey Morning Show was very excited on the eve of the release of her first book entitled “The Strawberry Letter: Real Talk, Real Advice, Because Bitterness Isn’t Sexy”. Here is what Shirley had to say:
“This book consists of a lot of the day to day Strawberry letters but that doesn’t start until the fourth chapter. Most of the book is semi-autobiographical, I go deep.. I become transparent. Some people ask me how can I give advice given the fact that I don’t have a psychology degree but I have been through things in life like abuse, the guilt of single parenting and things of that nature so I talk about those things in the book and give advice to women who are going through those same things. So I admonish them to get out of it, be happy and learn to love their life”.