The Free Library’s Borrowers’ Ball brings readers and writers together in Philadelphia
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<p>Journalist James Steele and his wife Nancy (left), with Eliza and Tony Auth (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Foundation board member and event cochair, Susan Smith (left), Foundation board member Tom Morris, and Ann Morris (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Lonnie Levin, Murray Levin, and Marciarose Shestack (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Assistant chief of staff at the Free Library, Autumn McClintock, and chair of the Free Library board of trustees Bob Heim, with his wife, Eileen Kennedy Heim (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Former Mayor W. Wilson Goode, Sr., trustee and Foundation board member (left), his wife, Velma, and Ralph Smith (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>(From left) Claudia and Dennis Willson, Christine Oliver, Foundation board member abd event cochair Barbara Sutherland, and Richard Oliver (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>President and director of the Free Library, Siobhan Reardon (right) with Patricia and John Imbesi, Foundation board member (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Willo Carey (left), Vice President Sotheby’s Selby Kiffer, Sr., Foundation board member Sheldon Bonovitz, Foundation board member and trustee Peter A. Benoliel (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Guests walk down the Pepper Staircase after cocktails upstairs in the Grand Hall Atrium and Literature Room for dinner in the Main Lobby, transformed by bright green lights and matching table decorations (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Violinist Wallace DePue entertains guests during dinner in Philbrick Hall (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Christie’s managing director Mid-Atlantic region Alexis McCarthy (left), Paul Provost, deputy chairman, Christie’s, and event cochair Claudia Balderston (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Jack Downes (left), Sondra Bergey, and Tobey Dichter, chair of the Foundation's board of directors (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
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<p>Sisters Nikka and Claire Landau (right), members of the Raven Society, the Free Library’s donor group of young friends in their 20s and 30s. (Photo courtesy of Kelly & Massa Photography)</p>
Brought to you by Freemans Auctioneers, The Circuit, with Caroline Stewart, takes you the Free Library for its annual Borrowers’ Ball. Become a regular of our new blog to keep up with the hottest philanthropic events.
Bright lights, bright colors, and bright spheres were the theme of the Free Library’s Borrowers’ Ball, held Dec.1 at the Free Library.
Guests entered the library on a neon citron carpet lit with enormous, multi-colored spheres and bubbles. They walked up the grand staircase, which was bathed in blue light, to the cocktail reception on the second floor in the Art and Literature Department, brightly lit in hot pink.
Dinner, prepared by Brulee Catering, was served downstairs in the Main Lobby, which was aglow in bright green, and in Philbrick Hall, awash in shades of orange. During dinner, guests enjoyed a lively performance by three violinists, two of whom are members of Time for Three, accompanied by musicians on bass, drums, and keyboard.
Claudia and Richard Balderston, Bennett Lomax, Susan G. Smith, Barbara and Fred Sutherland, and Lyn and Ed Tettemer cochaired the fundraiser. Among the 375 guests were 27 writers, including Jami Attenberg, Solomon Jones, Ken Kalfus, Inga Saffron, architecture critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Tony Auth.
The evening ended with a lavish dessert buffet on the second floor and dancing to the music of DJ Dramatic. Guests were joined by members of the Raven Society, the library’s young donor group.
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