DALTON—More than 500 celebrities and guests were greeted by a red carpet donated by Karastan at the 4th annual Joyful Heart Gala, held on May 17 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The star-studded event raised $1.9 million dollars to fight domestic violence.
“Karastan has been involved with this event from the beginning because we believe this is such an important issue—creating safe, healthy and happy home environments,” said Connie Berry, director of marketing for Karastan.
Actress and Karastan 2007 “Statement Maker” Mariska Hargitay founded the Joyful Heart Foundation in 2004 to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues.
“When people are abused and assaulted,” said Hargitay, star of Law & Order: SVU, “it is like the doors to their souls slam shut. The goal of Joyful Heart is to let the light, and the life, back in—to banish the darkness and let the healing begin.”
The theme of this year’s fund-raiser was “How Will You Join? (The Joyful Revolution).” Guests participated in a letter-writing campaign to appeal to federal lawmakers to end the backlog of rape kits. Experts estimate hundreds of thousands of rape kits are in police and crime lab storage facilities throughout the country. Until these are processed, these cases—and the lives they have shattered—remain in limbo.
News anchor Brian Williams was the host of this successful event, which also included performances by musician Patti Smith and singer Adam Duritz of Counting Crows. Guests included Hargitay and her husband Peter Hermann, Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello, Chris Meloni, Hilary Swank, Mario Batali, Wynonna Judd, Courtney Love and many more.