Photo Flash: Tony Winner Joanna Gleason Attends JCCA's 'CELEBRATION OF HOPE' Gala

More than 300 people attended JCCA's annual Celebration of Hope: A Gala to Benefit Children and Families at Jazz at Lincoln Center May 18, 2016. The festive event raised more than $700,000 to help the 16,000 vulnerable, abused children and families served by JCCA, one the national's oldest child and family services agencies. One of the highlights of the evening was Tony Award winner Joanna Gleason's song "Lullaby." She dedicated it to the "beautiful children JCCA serves." Scroll down for a photo of Gleason at the event!

According to Ronald E Richter, CEO, who marked his first year as CEO at the gala, "We honored three outstanding individuals who exemplify courage and resilience and demonstrate how JCCA repairs the world child by child." They included a successful fashion consultant who was taken care of by JCCA in his early years, a foster mother of medically fragile children and a social worker who enables distraught Jewish children to grow and thrive.

Added Barbara Salmanson, President of the Board, "JCCA offers stability to help our clients transform their lives. In everything we do, we are guided by the Jewish mandate of tikkun olam - the responsibility of every person to make the world a better place."

Also in attendance were: Peter and Daun Hauspurg, of Eastern Consolidated and longtime JCCA Board members, Cynthia Germanotta, president of Born This Way the Lady Gaga Foundation, actor Chris Sarandon, noted JCCA Board members Stanley Barshay, Marty Rosenman and Andrew Sommers, Father John Duffel and real estate leader Eugene M. Grant and his wife Emily.

JCCA provides comprehensive care to thousands of children, young people and families who come from New York's many diverse communities. Since 1822, we have embraced those who need us most -- abused, neglected and traumatized young people who are struggling with poverty, developmental disabilities and complex mental illness. We also work with disadvantaged Jewish immigrants and with Jewish children and their families in support of Jewish continuity. Our programs include foster and residential care, educational assistance and remediation, case management for young people with mental health challenges and services to families to prevent child abuse and maltreatment. JCCA offers safety, stability and lifesaving support to help our clients transform their lives. In everything we do, we are guided by the Jewish mandate of tikkun olam - the responsibility of every person to make the world a better place.

Learn how you, too, can repair the world, child by child at jccany.org.

Cynthia Germanotta, President, Born This Way Foundation (Lady Gaga's Foundation), Tony Award-winning actress and host for Celebration of Hope Joanna Gleason, Ronald E. Richter, CEO of JCCA and actor Chris Sarandon