Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Los Angeles turned 70 in star-studded fashion on Wednesday, in a night honoring 20th Television president Karey Burke, SMAC Entertainment co-founder and CEO Constance Schwartz-Morini and Macro’s Charles D. King and Stacey Walker King.
The Big Night Out Gala, held at the Beverly Hilton, celebrated 70 years of youth mentoring by one of the largest affiliates of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Sherry Lansing, who has been involved with the program for 40 of those years, kicked off the evening, noting how she’s seen that “the Bigs and the Littles are connected for life. The Big Sister is there when the Little Sister graduates college, when she gets her first promotion; these relationships do not stop when the girl graduates high school. They go on for the rest of their lives.”
Lansing also spoke about establishing The Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment Mentorship Program, which pairs young women from under-resourced high schools across L.A. with powerful female executives in entertainment. “This is a world that they never have ever been exposed to and a lot of them have had very, very prominent careers in entertainment after they go through this program,” she said of the mentees. “So if you want to pitch a script or an idea, you may be meeting one of our Little Sisters because I’ve seen them go up through the ranks, and it makes me very, very proud.”
Kerry Washington then took the stage to present the Sherry Lansing Award to Burke, celebrating the exec’s work as a mentor to her Little Sister Kenya McCoy.
“When I spoke to both Kenya and Karey, the thing that struck me the most, the thing that truly broke my heart open and made me understand the importance of giving this award to Karey Burke tonight was the way that they both talked about the emotional risks of being a Big Sister and a Little Sister,” Washington told the room. “What these women have given each other is not just an occasional phone call or an annual lunch. They have given each other their hearts. They have become, over time, family. They have earned the title of sisters.”
In accepting her award, Burke recalled how before she was matched with McCoy, “I loved attending this annual Hollywood Reporter Women in Entertainment breakfast. I saw Big Brothers and Big Sisters mentees be honored every year and when I finally joined the program myself, I waited like a kid on Christmas morning to find out who is my match, who is my match, what’s she going to be like? And then I got Kenya’s personal essay, and wow, her personality leapt off the page. I could tell right away that I would be learning just as much from her as she might from me.”
When the two met for the first time, they bonded over American Horror Story and “her smile lit up the whole office, and let’s be honest, that is not easy to do on a rainy Tuesday afternoon these days in the television business,” Burke joked. “She came right into my heart, and that smile has continued to light up every room we’ve been in together since.” McCoy went on to get a full-ride scholarship to Chapman University at THR‘s Women in Entertainment event, as Burke added, “I have learned so much more from her, this powerful, brave young woman, than she’ll ever know.”
Stacey Walker King and Charles D. King
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Later in the night, David Oyelowo presented the Walt Disney Philanthropists of the Year Award to King and Walker King. The actor remembered how King had guided him through rough patches in his career as he joked, “not until tonight did I find out that I guess I’m an alumni Little and you’re my Big — who knew?”
At the podium, King spoke about how the couple’s mission at Macro has always been that “seeing ourselves represented authentically and accurately is necessary” and promised, “We’re just getting started and I know many of you are just getting started. There’s so much more for us to do, so many more stories to share, to tell, so many more creative and brilliant artists to collaborate with and to champion and use all of our resources; so many inspiring young people to mentor, like this incredible organization does and just unlocking endless opportunities for these talented young people. There’s so many more communities for us to build, and so we thank you all for this incredible honor.”
Constance Schwartz-Morini
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To close out the evening, Schwartz-Morini was presented her Defender of Potential Award by the chairman and CEO of Universal Music Publishing Group Jody Gerson, along with video messages from Deion Sanders, Erin Andrews and Michael Strahan, as Schwartz-Morini spoke of the event being a call to action to “keep lifting, guiding and standing beside the next generation.” The gala — which welcomed guests including Michael Kassan, Syrinthia Studer and Kathryn Busby — went on to raise over $730,000 to support the organization’s one-on-one youth mentoring programs.