from: Neal Shapiro, President & CEO, WNET.org

Monday night WNET.ORG celebrated its Annual Gala Salute at Gotham Hall in Manhattan. Every spring, some of our most generous supporters gather to honor individuals who truly make a difference in our community and in our world. And in the process they help raise an impressive sum of money for the work of WNET.ORG and its media companies.

This year, we had the pleasure of honoring Meredith Brokaw, Jamie Dimon and Kevin Kline.

Meredith Brokaw is a member of our Board of Trustees, an author and a passionate advocate for education and humanitarian causes.

Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase and a great supporter of THIRTEEN and WLIW21’s on-air and educational work.

Kevin Kline, the Academy Award-winning actor, probably needs no introduction. He is a great friend of public television and a partner in our work.

Paula Zahn with this year’s Honorees Dimon, Brokaw, Kline

You know it really is a small world. It turns out I have connections to all three honorees from elsewhere in my life. Meredith Brokaw is married to Tom Brokaw, my former colleague at NBC News. Jamie Dimon and I both attended Tufts University as undergraduates. And as for Kevin Kline… one day not too long ago, I came home and my wife, JuJu Chang, asked me to guess who sold her the earrings she’d bought that day. “Phoebe Cates,” she said. Since JuJu knows I’m a big fan of Phoebe’s work as an actress, I thought she was pulling my leg, and responded, “Yeah, right, and Brad Pitt sold me this tie.” But now I know that Phoebe, who is married to our honoree Kevin Kline, has a lovely boutique called Blue Tree on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

So I felt as though, in a way, I knew all the honorees. And there certainly was an air of familiarity, community and camaraderie in the air. I looked around the room – whose décor was inspired by the Big Sky Cookbook series by Meredith Brokaw and Ellen Wright – and I could sense a shared spirit of respect for our wonderful New York public television stations.

As Paula Zahn, host of SundayArts and our MC for the evening, welcomed us, I noticed how engaged everyone was with what she had to say.

When it was my turn to speak I gave the audience a virtual tour of our new studio under construction at Lincoln Center and treated them to the world premiere of our new station identification spots – with music composed and performed by Juilliard students. As I unveiled these new developments, I felt the room buzzing with excitement.

And when our Board Chairman, Jim Tisch, announced that the Gala had raised $2.3 million for WNET.ORG, the thunderous applause left no doubt that everyone there cared deeply about WNET.ORG and was rooting for it to thrive.

Then, just before dinner, we played a special video that David Letterman had made for Meredith Brokaw. It brought down the house.

And after a delicious meal (also inspired by the Big Sky Cookbook), we got down to the real business of the night as Paula Zahn introduced a wonderful video tribute to Meredith, Jamie and Kevin and their amazing contributions to our world. And I must say that we could not have chosen three more gracious individuals to honor. Each of them represents the highest ideals of our society – ideals that inspire us every day in our work here at WNET.ORG.