Helping Los Angeles fulfill its future, one student at a time

CHERYL and Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Brad Grey, Ron Meyer, Amy Pascal and nearly 1,000 guests gathered at the Beverly Hilton for the annual STARS benefit gala in support of the Fulfillment Fund. The nonprofit is dedicated to helping high school students graduate and go to college, providing scholarship money, mentoring and college counseling. The Fulfillment Fund serves 3,000 students in the Los Angeles area every year.

“Most of our students live in communities of violence and poverty,” said Dr. Gary Gitnick, who founded the organization in 1977. “We try to show them that they have a choice.”

The master of ceremonies for the Nov. 14 event was comedian Chris Rock, who raised a few eyebrows with his edgy comments. “Antonio Villaraigosa, ladies and gentlemen, a.k.a. the Mexican mayor,” he said in an introduction. “I loved you in ‘American Maid.’ ”

Villaraigosa struck a more serious note. “We are living in a city where one-half of our children are dropping out of school,” he said. Los Angeles is “full of America’s hope and promise, but if we don’t educate these kids, no one is going to want to live here.”

The evening featured a live auction of one-of-a-kind gifts such as a fantasy sports package, with tickets to the World Series, NBA championships and the Super Bowl, and a ride in a MIG fighter jet.

Grazer, who won a 2002 Academy Award for producing “A Beautiful Mind,” was honored. “Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment have always been incredible supporters,” said Andrea Cockrum, chief executive of the Fulfillment Fund. “Their internship program through Universal Studios has provided wonderful opportunities for so many of our students.”

The keynote speaker was Lisette Alvaraz, a Fulfillment Fund alum who attended the University of Michigan. She told guests about growing up living in a garage, the daughter of a maintenance worker. “I could never have imagined being part of a night like this,” she said, relaying the story of her best friend being gunned down on the way home from school.

Arriving at the University of Michigan was a difficult transition, but her mentors from the Fulfillment Fund helped. “They didn’t just help me get into college or pay for college. They helped me get through college,” she said. “I am one of the lucky ones. I did not become a statistic. And the line between being a success and being a statistic is very thin.”