Pali High Auction Gala Reaches Fundraising Goal

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

The Palisades Charter High School annual auction gala—themed “Pali Runway: Where Style Makes Waves” and hosted by the Pali High Booster Club—reached its fundraising goal to support the school.

“Although it was raining, that did not stop us from achieving well over our goal … to get a new projector in Mercer Hall, which was much needed,” event co-chair Jamee Natella said to the Palisadian-Post of the April 13 event, which, for the first time in its history, included a runway fashion show.

The event was co-chaired by Natella, Mariam Engel and Erika Feresten, with Kristina Burokas as the silent auction committee chair—“who input over 177 auction items manually by herself.”

Items that were part of the auction included a Four Seasons Maui Getaway, Czinger 21C Hypercar Tour and lunch with Jon Voight.

“[Our team] was jam-packed with powerhouse women who all came together in various departments,” Natella described. “We had Emma Ward, who created the choreography for the runway show, and Claudia Barroso, who took charge of the art and photography portion. Our fashion show committee consisted of Ricarda Lindes and Shanika Aarons.”

The host committee included Pauline Hamid, Talia Bolourian, Jeanne Ofek, Donna Clark, Blair Golden and Sepi Nazarian, who led the cleanup crew, with Asal Almay in charge of photography. A sponsorship committee was led by Zenobia Moore, Christine Syquia, Negin Koshki and Christina Lambert, who also served as raffle chair. Beth Greve assisted with marketing and signage.

The event took place at a private residence in Brentwood.

“We centered the auction around school spirit and had students involved throughout,” Natella explained. “We had the orchestra students play at the front of the house, and created our own runway in the back of the house where both students and faculty from Pali High participated.”

Pali merch—including new socks, pajama bottoms, sweatpants, hoodies and more—was redesigned by Bronwyn Major. Major also designed a website for the event, in partnership with GiveSmart.

In addition, art and photography students attended and showcased their work, headed by Pali High teacher Rick Steils, for the auction. There was also a coffee table book with their photography available for purchase.

“A special thank you to the Bolourian family, who opened their beautiful home and allowed us to make the auction the success that it was,” Natella said. “We had a massive team, which all led to the massive success of the Pali Auction Gala for 2024.”