Anand Jon, Helen Yarmak,
Tina Louise. |
FRANK
FOUNDATION
Putin
Invites 9/11 Kids
For a Russian Holiday
Story by Roger Webster
Photos by Chance Yeh
 USSIAN
President Vladimir Putin was so moved by the human suffering
the September 11 attack caused that he invited children who lost
family members for a holiday in Russia. He asked Frank Foundation
Child Assistance International to arrange these trips.
The
Frank Foundation is a good choice as they are dedicated to helping
children who are the victims of war. They arranged the adoption of
more than 6,000 Russian orphans over the last ten years and rescued
100 injured children from war-torn Chechnya and Georgia.
The
organization is currently evacuating as many of the most traumatized
children in Afghanistan to Tajikistan for rehabilitative treatment
and medical care. I say as many as they can because the cost of
rescuing each child is roughly $30,000. Their funds are limited and
the number of needy children in Afghanistan is countless.
The
Frank Foundation was honored recently at the Bentley Manhattan
showroom on Park Avenue by Russian furrier Helen Yarmak. Her
clients include Jim Carrey, Anna Kornikova, Jack Nicholson,
Melanie Griffith, Luciano Pavarotti, Goldie Hawn and Kate
Hudson.
Fur clad Ford models on the red
carpet. |
A
bevy of beautiful Ford Agency models along with hunky male models Michael
Fagan and Mauricio Amuy arrived in Rolls-Royces to prance
down a red carpet in Yarmak’s new fur and jewelry designs, much to
the delight of the crowd of well wishers. It seems a little ironic
but it is one way of getting the word around.
Among
the guests were Frank Cilione and Shamin Abas, fresh
from celebrating the sixth anniversary of their NV club on Spring
Street, Richard Torrenzano, Helen and Tim Schifter,
Ninotchka Tenhoppen, Grace Hightower, lighting wizard Bentley
Meeker, always stylish Amy Rosi, Michele Gerber Klein,
Elite model Heidi Albertsen, Black Tie International’s
handsome publisher Gerry McKeon, and Russian born Mila
Andre of the Daily News, with Vitali Baganov, who
plays one of those tough Russians on The Sopranos, sipped
vodka and devoured Petrossian Paris’s hors d’oeuvres.
Tina
Louise, who was named as a child Tatiana Josivovna Chernova, told Frank Foundation
president Nina Kostina and communications officer Julie
Hogan about her Russian roots, while congratulating them on
their amazing work.
Tina
told the evening’s emcee, R. Couri Hay, as he bid for items
at the silent auction that benefited the foundation, that she once
studied the Russian language, but then her career took off in Italy
and she had to learn Italian, after which she was shipwrecked on Gilligan’s
Island – and the rest is pop history.
|
The
Main Event
