FUNraising Gala 2014-Paul Mitchell Schools
The results are in … for the 11th straight year, over 13,000 “Future Professionals” and staff members from Paul Mitchell Schools spent 3 months raising money for charity. This year’s $2.1 million addition brings their grand total to more than $13.3 million! The Gala celebration at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA was co-hosted by Fran Drescher and Winn Claybaugh, with special guests Magic Johnson, Marie Osmond, Sara Rue, Danny Trejo, Ricky and Andrea Schroder, John Paul DeJoria, Jo Anne Worley, and others, plus entertainment by husband-wife jazz duo Tuck and Patti.
You know we couldn’t just attend the gala event like nice girls and sit at our table politely clapping… the temptation for stalking was far too great. We will give you a basic run down of the evening as we might incriminate ourselves if we divulge anything beyond that…
Ricky Schroder
When Hair Nerd Carrie discovered Ricky Schroder was gong to be in attendance she was on the verge of a meltdown. Apparently, said teen heart throb had been Carrie’s first crush. Memories of watching Ricky on silver spoons flooded her psyche and she went into crazed fan girl mode…. Let’s be clear.. It is one thing to tastefully stalk a celebrity hairdresser, but Carrie was definitely pushing the limits… We were waiting for security to ask us to please leave.
Surrounded by a mob of adoring fans interested in his philanthropic work, Carrie stood back while working up the courage to go say hi… Instead she began taking pictures with Ricky from 50 feet away…
Exhibit A-
Exhibit B-
It goes on and on kids… We have an entire folder full of Mrs. Carrie Schroder pics…
In the end, Erin dragged her to Ricky and his obscenely gorgeous wife to say hello and thank them for there incredible work with Wells of Hope. Carrie was put in charge of taking the selfie of this foursome and little by little it became a duo…. Weird….
Fran Drescher
Getting to meet Fran Drescher was a super cool experience because we had just watched her perform on Broadway in Cinderella a couple of months ago. Hair Nerd Bestie, Daniel Koye, let us spend the day with him in the wig room, while he gave us the low down on costumes, hair pieces, backstage and what we now refer to as “Broadway Magic”.
That evening we caught a performance of Cinderella where Fran Drescher was playing the Evil Step-Mother. Little did we know we would be discussing the entire experience with her shortly after.
Table 19
We found ourselves at Table 19 and we had already been informed this was going to be a fun group…. We had to wonder…Had Paul Mitchell The School purposefully sat all the troublemakers together?
Jeremy and Bridget Teall , the school owners of PMTS Lexington Kentucky were absolutely lovely and put up with our constant picture taking, tweeting and instagramming. Education Leader, Benny, kept us in fits of laughter and saved our dinner when an overzealous server tried to clear our still covered dish while we were fawning over Dean Banowetz.
Dean Banowetz
This event attracts the most elite hairdressers because they understand that giving back in the new black.. We saw a picture of Dean on Instagram and immediately started texting and tweeting him to find out what table he was at.. During a short break we traversed the room to see our very fave Hollywood Hair Bear. Do you follow him on social?? He keeps us laughing, for sure!
After catching up on all of his insanely exciting projects coming up and making him promise to invite us… like he could keep us away if he didn’t…
PM Pals
We met Lucie Doughty and Lisa Botts a few months ago over lunch with Nina Kovner. Lucie is Nina’s super incredible colorist and Paul Mitchell Editorial Badass. We are obsessed with the Straight Pin LA kits and basically want to just sit and watch Lucie create magic all day. Lisa is rumored to be a phenomenal vegan chef and we hear she makes the best hot chocolate on Earth. After inserting ourselves into their conversation we were introduced to the famed Sam Burns and CJ Rebecky. You know them from John Paul Mitchell Systems but they also run Paul Mitchell The School- Santa Barbara, where we REALLY want to visit!
Vivienne Mackinder
We had already confirmed with Vivienne’s camp she would be attending the Gala several weeks prior so when the Gala ended and we still hadn’t seen her we began to stress. Winners from the annual “First 100” contest were recognized for raising at least $3,000 individually and were scheduled to take a hands-on class with Vivienne the next day so we knew she couldn’t go too far.
We spotted Viv’s red hair and made a beeline to her. We had just interviewed her a couple of days prior about being a NAHA finalist and get a little crazy anytime there is a chance to see her. Can you blame us?
Eden Sassoon
As we finished chatting with Vivienne, the heaven’s parted and shined down onto Eden Sassoon as she stood up across the room and began slowly making her way to the exit. Panic entered our hearts and we kept a close eye on her every movement.
We have been stalking Eden via instagram and facebook for quite some time. We knew this was our last chance and she was about to escape! In a mad dash, we scurried across the theatre and cut her off at the top of the final steps out of the room. We had no time to concoct a reasonable explanation for our antics and instead opted for the honest truth. It went a little something like…. “ Hi sorry to run you over but we have actually been stalking you for a long time and we really super wanted to meet you and we think you are so lovely….” (deep breath, Nerds) It was a total fan girl moment.
There was a sudden glow and Eden graciously talked to us for much longer than we are sure her poor date wanted to… We now refer to the whole interaction as our Heavenly meeting of Eden Sassoon.
Hattori Hanzo Shears
As we tried to regain our composure and exit the building we ran into the boys from Hattori Hanzo. We love these guys because not only are they super fun but they are also extremely passionate about education and giving back.
This makes perfect sense when you consider they are the founders of The Trade, an organization devoted to sending teams of educated hairdressers to third world countries to teach women who have been involved in sex trafficking the art of hairdressing, manicuring, makeup application, and salon business. This gives women the opportunity to learn new skills, feed their families, and contribute to their local economies in a meaningful way. (You can read about why we love The Trade and how you can help, HERE.)
We stopped to celebrate with them as Winn Claybaugh had just pledged 25k in support to The Trade. It really epitomized what #PMTSgives14 means. These future professionals are taking action to help right the wrongs of the world.
We can’t thank Paul Mitchell Schools enough for inviting us to come be apart of the 2014 FUNraising Gala! We had such an amazing time stalking!