Oceana’s 2008 Partners Award Gala Honored Former President Bill Clinton along with Trudie Styler and Sting
Press Release Date: September 30, 2009
Location: Beverly Hills, CA
Contact:
Anna Baxter | email: abaxter@oceana.org
Anna Baxter
Former President Bill Clinton along with Trudie Styler and Sting were honored with Partners Awards at this year’s annual Oceana Partners Award Gala held tonight, Saturday, October 18th in Los Angeles. The event took place at the Pacific Palisades home of Jena and Michael King and was sponsored by longtime Oceana supporter La Mer. Oceana raised over $1,300,000.
Guests were treated to a special four song surprise performance by Sting. Dustin Hoffman joined him onstage to play the piano for a song Dustin had written. Rosanna Arquette also served as the DJ throughout the evening.
Attendees included Ted Danson & Mary Steenburgen, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin, Dustin Hoffman, Pierce Brosnan and Keely Shaye Smith, Diane Keaton, Kirsten Dunst, Adrian Grenier, January Jones, Saffron Burrows, Katharine McPhee, Zach Braff, Melissa George, Rosanna Arquette, Haim Saban, Tracey Edmonds, Eric Balfour, Kristin Chenoweth, Arianna Huffington, Laura Dern and Ben Harper, Norman Lear, Sarah Paulsen, Laird Hamilton, Sugar Ray Leonard, Karina Petroni and Lisa Anderson.
Oceana honored Former President Bill Clinton for his long term dedication to protecting the environment. Through the William J. Clinton Foundation, he launched the Clinton Climate Initiative in 2006 with the mission of applying the Foundation’s business oriented approach to make practical, measurable and significant contributions to the fight against climate change. They work with over 40 of the world’s largest cities as well as additional building owners, schools, universities and other institutions to reduce greenhouse emissions. They have brought together many of the world’s largest energy service companies, financial institutions and building owners to cut energy consumption in buildings in more than 30 cities. They are developing waste management projects in over 10 cities worldwide and they are working with cities to replace traffic lights with LED technologies which would reduce energy relating to traffic lighting by up to 90 percent.
Trudie Styler and Sting founded the Rainforest Foundation in 1989 to protect both the world’s rain forests and the indigenous peoples who live there. Together, they have raised more than $25 million dollars with their 15 benefit concerts to raise funds and awareness of our planet’s endangered resources. Since its inception, the Rainforest Foundation has expanded to a network of interconnected organizations working in 23 countries around the globe.
Event chairs were Heather Thomas and Skip Brittenham, Cindy and Alan Horn, Janet and Gil Friesen, Jena and Michael King, Kelly and Ron Meyer, Tara and Peter Guber, Mary Steenburgen and Ted Danson, Marilyn and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Arthur Fogel, Lynn and Sam Waterston, Ann and Jerry Moss, and Kathryn Schenker. Hosts of the event included Keri Selig and Keith Addis, Keely Shaye Smith and Pierce Brosnan, Brian Grazer, Paula Wagner and Rick Nicita, Cheryl and Ron Howard, Lyn and Norman Lear, Arianna Huffington, Peter Morton, Robert Redford, Stephanie Romanov and Nick Wechsler, Blaire and Aaron Kaplan, and Jamie and Chris McGurk.
Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the world’s oceans. Its teams of marine scientists, economists, lawyers and advocates win specific and concrete policy changes to reduce pollution and to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life. Global in scope and dedicated to conservation, Oceana’s campaigners are based in North America (Washington, DC; New York, NY; Boston, MA; St. Petersburg, FL; Juneau and Anchorage, AK; Monterey, CA; and Portland, OR), Europe (Madrid, Spain; Brussels, Belgium) and South America (Santiago, Chile). Recently, the US Government — after campaigning by Oceana — adopted the Oceana approach and closed 1.8 million square kilometers of Pacific ocean to destructive trawling, an area more than four times the size of California. Oceana was prominently featured in the 2008 Green Issue of Vanity Fair, and was also named last year by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine as a “charity that deserves your dollars.”
In 2001, Oceana merged with the American Ocean’s Campaign (AOC), which was founded in 1987 by Ted Danson. Each year, the AOC and now Oceana have held events in Los Angeles which have honored individuals who have made outstanding contributions through their personal commitment to the cause of protecting and conserving our environment. These events are attended by hundreds of guests from the entertainment, business, and philanthropic communities. Past Partners Awards honorees include Pierce Brosnan & Keely Shaye Smith, James Cameron, Stephen McPherson, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Annett Wolf, Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christopher Reeve, Lynn and Sam Waterston, Rick Nicita, Keith Addis, Irving Azoff, Sir John Browne, Don Henley, Cindy and Alan Horn, Sylvia Earle, Michael King, Ted Turner, Jean-Michel Cousteau and Toyota Motor Sales. Last year, Oceana honored Dr. Daniel Pauly and Former Vice President Al Gore whose award was presented by Anjelica Huston. Presenters in previous years have included Salma Hayek, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ron Meyer and Jamie Lee Curtis. For more information on Oceana, please visit ww.oceana.org.
