Inside the Annual Sasha Bruce Youthwork Fundraiser

Owen Sula, Ed Walters, Meghan Aptelbaum, and Bobby Kennedy. Photographs by Erik Uecke

In what may be one of the last public soirees at Georgetown’s Halycon House, the group Sasha Bruce Youthwork held its annual fundraiser Tuesday evening with a performance by rock/jazz pianist ELEW (a.k.a. Eric Lewis). It was the third time the group has hosted ELEW at the popular party venue, which will soon change hands and could well be off the party rental circuit.

The evening began with a private Champagne reception for patrons and sponsors, who paid from $250 up to $1,000 per ticket. Others congregated downstairs in the home’s largest party space, where ELEW’s grand piano, lit by bright spotlights, was the focal point. This is where Lewis rocked the room, and where Mayor Vincent Gray made remarks to an audience that included those who have benefited from Youthwork program and those who are supporters, including executive director and founder Deborah Shore, development director James Beck, board chair Elizabeth Stevens, Ann Jordan, Tracy and Adam Bernstein, Travis Brown, Christopher Addison, William Paley, Nicholas Cafritz, Stephanie and Keith Lerner, and Constance Bruce.

Sasha Bruce Youthwork was formed in the late 1970s to provide services to disenfranchised and disadvantaged DC youth. The Southeast Sasha Bruce House exists as a “safe haven” for city children in need of a roof over their heads. The organization is named after Sasha Bruce, daughter of former ambassador David Bruce and his wife, Evangeline. Sasha died under mysterious circumstances from a gunshot wound in 1975 at the family estate in Virginia.

Carol Ross Joynt