Lauded British shoe designer Sophia Webster visited only three stores during her recent tour of the U.S.—and Saks Fifth Avenue at Plaza Frontenac was one of them. The award-winning designer signed shoes for guests and did some on-the-spot sketches to give shoppers an idea of what they might be wearing next year A portion of the evening’s sales went to Contemporary Art Museum, whose executive director, Lisa Melandri, discussed the artistic process at the event.
Eliot Frick, founder and CEO of local social marketing agency bigwidesky, helped organize the recent Be Human Project Salon. The event, a gathering of executives dedicated to making the business world more people-focused, featured special guest Peter Strople, a former director at Dell Computer Corp. “The salon is the first of a series, and we hope to connect top business leaders in an ongoing conversation about how business can lead the way in celebrating and protecting humans,” Frick says.
The Engelhardt Family Foundation, established by local philanthropists Irl and Sue Engelhardt, has awarded National Children’s Cancer Society a $250,000 challenge grant over five years for its Beyond the Cure Ambassador Scholarship Program. The match provides $1 million in college scholarships to childhood cancer survivors. “We’re encouraged by the growing number of childhood cancer survivors, and hope the money will equip many of them with the resources to achieve their goals through education,” says Sue Engelhardt, an NCCS board member. The Engelhardts are shown here with son Evan, a third-year medical student who helps evaluate Foundation grants and awards, and daughter Erin, director of the Foundation.
Isaac Mizrahi returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis this season to direct Mozart’s The Magic Flute. The famed designer’s 2010 OTSL directorial debut, Stephen Soundheim’s A Little Night Music, was a huge hit with audiences and critics alike.
Historians agree young George Washington neither chopped down a cherry tree nor said, “I cannot tell a lie.” But there’s no doubt the father of our country loved trees and planted hundreds on his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia. Today, a direct descendant of those trees is thriving on Washington University’s Danforth campus. One of only 12 surviving offshoots from trees planted in 1785, the tulip poplar was given to the university (and other prominent institutions named after Washington) as a seedling in 1991. Now there’s a plaque attesting to its authenticity. You can view both just north of Ridgley Hall, near the entrance to Holmes Lounge.
