Social Circuit

More than 500 guests attended the Please Touch Museum's 14th annual Great Friend to Kids Awards, held Nov. 19 at the museum. The cocktail reception honored Shire Pharmaceuticals; Cordella Hauser; Tom Toscani; the Phillie Phanatic; and Anne Hamilton, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Chaired by Dominic Catrambone, Daniel K. Fitzpatrick, and Susan Shea, the event raised $205,000 for the

museum.

The Main Line Antiques Show held its preview party for 260 guests Nov. 20 at the Valley Forge Military Academy and College. The show, held Nov. 21 to 22, featured a loan exhibition of presidential china from the collection of Joan and Set Charles Momjian. The exhibition, "Dinner Is Served: 200 Years of Entertaining at the White House," included china of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman. The show and preview party raised $40,000 for Surrey Services for Seniors.

Peco Energy Co. chief executive Denis O'Brien received Drexel University's LeBow College of Business 2009 Business Leader of the Year award Dec. 3 at the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue. O'Brien, who also is a vice president of Exelon Corp., earned a Drexel MBA in 1987 and is a university trustee. Attended by 675 guests, the luncheon raised more than $400,000 to establish a scholarship fund and support academic programs at LeBow. The event was cochaired by Walter D'Alessio, Nicolas DeBenedictis, Lisa Nutter, Eliana Papadakis, and John Rowe, chairman and chief executive of Exelon.

CORA Services held its Champions for Children Celebration Nov. 24 at the Union League. The event, led by master of ceremonies Joe Watkins, honored Attorney General Tom Corbett; Daniel K. Fitzpatrick of Citizens Bank; and Rosemary Martin, a 12th grader at Cardinal Dougherty High School who received CORA's first Classroom Champion award. The 210 guests raised $105,000 for CORA, which annually provides support services to nearly 20,000 children and their families in the Philadelphia area.

The Cadence Cycling Foundation, founded in 2007 by Jay Snider, held its first fund-raiser Dec. 4 at the Wayne home of commercial real estate developer Mike O'Neill and his wife, Jeannie. The dinner for 145 guests raised $55,000 for the Manayunk-based foundation, which provides a cycling program for more than 200 inner-city children ages 9 to 16. Among the live auction items was the bike that Marco Pantani rode when he won the 1997 Tour de France (it went for $2,000), and four hours of flying time on Citation Air for the winner and seven guests - won by Pat Croce for $20,000. The Pantani bike was donated back to Cadence by Sean Sweeney of Philadelphia Insurance Co. to auction off again.