This old house

The 22d Wyck-Strickland Award dinner, held Oct. 22 at the Down Town Club, honored architects Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake of KieranTimberlake. Nearly 150 guests attended the benefit, which was chaired by Julia Moore Converse and Victoria M. Steiger. The evening raised more than $40,000 for Wyck, a National Historic Landmark house and garden in Germantown that was owned by the Wistar-Haines family for nearly 300 years.

Wistar gala

Ira Brind, president of Brind Investments Inc., was honored at the Wistar Institute's black-tie gala, held Saturday at the Rittenhouse Hotel. Brind, a Wistar board member since 1988, served as chairman from 1994 to 1998. After dining on a menu of pan-seared veal chops, potato Lyonnaise, and chocolate Bavarian, the 280 guests danced to the Joe Sudler Orchestra. The biennial benefit, chaired by Adele K. Schaeffer, raised $150,000 for biomedical research at the institute.

Burn Foundation honors

The Burn Foundation held its 36th annual gala, "People Make the Difference," Oct. 16 at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel. The evening honored the Anapol Schwartz Foundation and Linda French and Tonas Kalil, founders of Mid-Atlantic Burn Camp of Harrisonburg, Va. The gala for 200 raised $84,000 for the foundation. Since 2004, the foundation has provided more than $1.8 million to four regional burn medical centers - Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Lehigh Valley Hospital, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, and Temple University Hospital.

Can you dig it?

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology celebrated the opening of its latest exhibition, "Iraq's Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur's Royal Cemetery," with a preview party Oct. 23 for 175 guests. The show, taken from the museum's permanent collection, features 220 artifacts excavated between 1922 and 1934 at a 4,500-year-old royal cemetery in Ur in southern Iraq. The party, chaired by Gretchen Riley and Marguerite Goff, raised about $50,000 for the museum.

Benefit at Baltzell

Peter's Place, a center for grieving children and families in Radnor, held its fund-raiser "An Affair of the Arts" Oct. 24 at the Baltzell Design Center in Northern Liberties. Chaired by Debbie Mohr Geffken, the evening showcased the work of about 14 contemporary artists, many of whom attended the benefit. The evening for 130 guests raised $50,000 for the center, which was founded in 2001 in memory of 10-year-old Peter Morsbach.