God’s Love We Deliver and Friends Bring Provençal Flair to the Hamptons for the 23^rd Annual Midsummer Night Drinks

Hosts Lisa and James Cohen made remarks, welcoming our 350 guests. Alyce Panico, CEO of Luxe Collective Group, drew excitement from the crowd when speaking about the tremendous Regent Seven Seas Cruises® auction of a 7-night luxury cruise for two guests aboard the Seven Seas Explorer®. God’s Love We Deliver President & CEO David Ludwigson spoke about the growing need for our medically tailored meal program, as the organization has delivered 25% more meals this year than the year prior.

“I’m so proud to be part of God’s Love We Deliver, which means so much to so many people,” said Lisa Cohen, founder and editorial director of GALERIE magazine. “It’s absolutely wrapped around love, because food is love and love is food. We’re so honored to be a connector as hosts of Midsummer Night Drinks, bringing together so many people who are all about love and doing things for our neighbors who really need help.”

As the need for medically tailored meals continues to grow, events like Midsummer Night Drinks allow God’s Love to meet this demand. This past fiscal year, God’s Love cooked and home-delivered more than 4.3 million meals – an agency record – and served more than 16,000 individuals. The funds raised this weekend will allow us to continue to serve the increasing number of clients who call on us for help. As always, we pledge to remain true to our core values: all of our meals are free of charge, we will never have a waiting list, and a client will receive their first delivery on the day following initial contact.

During the live auction, conducted by Harry Santa-Olalla, guests bid on the Seven Seas Explorer® cruise by Regent Seven Seas Cruises®, and program items including meals for clients and their families and meal delivery vans.

New to the live auction this year was a 7-night luxury cruise for two guests to experience the beauty of Alaska aboard the Seven Seas Explorer®, which auctioned for $12,000.

Artist Marcos Anziani held a live painting session during the event. The piece was created as part of a silent auction to benefit God’s Love.

Seen at the event were Lisa and James Cohen, Kyle MacLachlan and Desiree Gruber, Countess Luann de Lesseps, Chef Amanda Freitag, Geoffrey Bradfield, Victoria Brito, Neil and Marika Bender, Chad Beguelin, Ross Bleckner, Julie and Ben Chodor, Chris Culkin, Ron Maggio and Brian Hutchison, Kate Miller, Eleni and James Shay, Dave Rogal and Ron Carlivati, Michael Lorber, Joanne and Craig DeSanto, Jayne Baron Sherman, Robert and Sophie Longo, Jim and Kandice Halpin, Tamara Tunie, Vicente Wolf and Matthew Yee, and more.

God’s Love would like to extend our deepest gratitude to this year’s hosts, Lisa and James Cohen. The evening would not have been possible without Galerie magazine, Regent Seven Seas Cruises®, Dry Farm Wines, New York Cocktail Co., Hampton Water Rosé, Dan’s Papers, Canard, Inc., Dan Klores Communications, and Paul Wilmot Communications.

After mingling to French jazz from the 1920s-60s by the Carte Blanche Jazz Band, guests left with the latest issue of GALERIE magazine and “Chuck’s Famous Brownies,” baked with love by Chef Dorothy Auer and God’s Love We Deliver volunteers.

On behalf of the entire God’s Love We Deliver team, thank you to everyone who joined us at Midsummer Night Drinks. Your love and enthusiasm helped make this year’s event a true celebration!

Photos by Patrick McMullan/PMC, Sean Zanni/PMC and Kim Mancuso Photography. See more photos in our Facebook album.