Henry Winkler joked on Saturday in Brentwood, “I’d like to be adopted,” as he continued, “All the money that will be raised by you raising your paddles will be matched by the Bezos family tonight, on top of all they have already given.
This past weekend, the charity event celebrating This Is About Humanity’s fifth anniversary raised more than $1 million thanks to the actor opening his home to it. Additionally, the Bezos family gave $1 million in 2022.
With the help of Yolanda Walther-Meade and Elsa Marie Collins, Winkler’s daughter Zoe Winkler Reinis founded the organisation, which has been helping bordering communities since 2018. The women assist local LGBTQ organisations as well as shelters for women, children, and families.
Collins summed up Lauren Sánchez’s influence by saying, “We went from wanting to do things to actually doing them.” Lauren Sánchez was the evening’s honoree and the recipient of its Humanitarian Award. She was accompanied by her fiancé Jeff Bezos, as well as friends Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Eva Longoria, and Jordan’s crown prince Hussein bin Abdullah.
Jenner and the director Brian Grazer started the evening by giving $50,000 each.
Collins recalled how she and Sánchez first connected: “We used to be in a women’s group that…
Sánchez chimed in, “wanted to make a difference in politics.” We make excellent pickleball partners, too. Everyone on the court is destroyed by us.
Our Latina side is revealed.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, Sánchez was watching Collins post about TIAH, she said. “How can I help you?” I asked her over the phone.
In reference to her first trip to the border, she continued, “I came back a different person.
After a brief pause during which she started to cry, she added, “These — I get upset every time I talk about it — this little girl, like three years old, and they’re in this space this huge,” she motioned, “with a hundred other people living in a tent. These kids are content, too. These smiles are on their faces. They brim with life. But all they want is for someone to notice them.
Sánchez shared her troubles with grades as a child owing to undiagnosed dyslexia and being “seen” by a teacher when she first entered the stage. “It only took one person to have faith in me.”
She concluded by saying, “And Jeff, I just want to say, thank you for inspiring me to go out into the world and make a difference.”
Bezos, who was seated at a table with Jenner and her boyfriend Corey Gamble, caught attention.
When Jenner joined them, she praised Sanchez, “You did so well. “Baby, you did a beautiful job.”
In partnership with the International Community Foundation and United Way Mexico, Sánchez assisted TIAH in launching the Ludotecas/Learning Libraries for children. In addition to collaborating with 19 shelters, TIAH has boosted the number of meals served in its food-relief kitchen with ICF and Fundacion Tijuana Sin Hambre from 1,000 per day to 3,100, and is on course to serve more than a million by the end of the year. They have funded the pro bono legal representation activities of Immigrant Defenders Law Centre and employed a full-time psychologist for the LGBTQ shelters.
“They would be vulnerable to human trafficking, sex trafficking, kidnapping by narco cartels, and narco violence if they were not in these shelters,” Collins added. Additionally, “establishing programmes and spaces where we know people will be coming through and that these places are safe, they’re taken care of, and they’re treated with humanity” is necessary.