Swing into spring

The Big Easy has come to town with the 2008 Philadelphia Flower Show, "Jazz It Up," which opened with a black-tie gala Saturday night at the Convention Center. While the Irvin Mayfield Quintet performed on the Bourbon Street stage, more than 3,000 guests roamed the 10-acre show to admire the 58 main exhibits, including Terrain at Styer's Best of Show exhibit featuring a slice of the Mississippi Delta.

The dinner, with its menu of glazed beef short ribs and chocolate and pistachio mousse cake, was attended by 1,850 guests. Chaired by Urban Engineers president Edward M. D'Alba, the evening raised more than $600,000 to benefit the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Philadelphia Green program.

Going places

Nearly 650 guests attended Crossing the Finish Line's eighth annual Beach Ball Gala on Feb. 9 at the Crystal Tea Room. Since the organization's founding in 2000, it has provided all-expense-paid trips to donated homes and sunny resorts for more than 500 cancer patients and their families. Before dinner, David Duemler of Green Lane, Montgomery County, sporting a bright Hawaiian shirt, expressed his heartfelt thanks for his trip last May to Orlando, saying he is "totally refocused on enjoying the wonderful, fun things in life." The event, chaired by Jessica Martin, raised nearly $70,000.

Hot shots on ice

Former Flyers Bernie Parent and Gary Dornhoefer were among the 100 guests who attended a dinner for charter members of the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation at the Wachovia Center's Lexus Club on Feb. 21.

Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider founded a youth enrichment program in 2005 that provides equipment, ice time, coaching and life skills to inner-city children at no cost. The program, which is in its third season with 2,500 boys and girls participating, has raised more than $6.2 million to date, including a $4 million matching gift from Snider.

Red hot and blue

The Blue Hair Studio, a Huntingdon Valley hair salon by day, became a Cuban jazz club at night when it sizzled with the jazz sound of the Elio Villafranca Quintet at a fund-raiser on Feb. 16 for the Ray of Hope Project. Among the quintet's performers were Grammy-nominated jazz flutist Dave Valentin and 2003 Grammy-winning Cuban drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez. The benefit was attended by 150 guests and raised more than $10,000. The Ray of Hope Project, founded in 2002 by Blue's owner Will Bostock and Raymond Gant, provides home repairs to low-income families in Philadelphia.

Heart and sole    

Thirty-one dancers from Pennsylvania Ballet donated their time and talent to choreograph and perform the 16th annual benefit performance of Shut Up & Dance for MANNA that was held on Feb. 23. The one-night-only performance at the Forrest Theatre, hosted by WXPN's Michaela Majoun, included a VIP party before the program and an after-party with the dancers at Pure nightclub. The benefit raised $130,000 to help MANNA provide 40,000 meals each month for people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-threatening illnesses.