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Greenwich Nonprofit Celebrates 15 Years With Event In Darien

DARIEN, Conn. -- Susie De Rafelo and Jan Ivarsson of Greenwich celebrated 15 years of Orphans International Worldwide with a seaside garden party at the home of Karin and Lennart Mengwall in the Tokeneke neighborhood of Darien.

Susie De Rafelo of Greenwich addressing the guests.

Susie De Rafelo of Greenwich addressing the guests.

Photo Credit: Contributed
Conor Grennan, of New Canaan with his book “Little Princes” and Jim Luce of New York introducing him.

Conor Grennan, of New Canaan with his book “Little Princes” and Jim Luce of New York introducing him.

Photo Credit: Contributed
Lennart Mengwall of Darien and Penny Glassmeyer of Darien.

Lennart Mengwall of Darien and Penny Glassmeyer of Darien.

Photo Credit: Contributed
Ronnie Maher of Nicaragua, Susie De Rafelo of Greenwich, Wendell Minnick of Greenwich and Jim Luce of New York.

Ronnie Maher of Nicaragua, Susie De Rafelo of Greenwich, Wendell Minnick of Greenwich and Jim Luce of New York.

Photo Credit: Contributed

The garden party was the final event of the Orphans International Worldwide national fund- and awareness-raising campaign of the summer of 2015. It featured Jim Luce, founder of Orphans International Worldwide and the James Jay Dudley Luce Foundation. Jim Luce, who authors the Stewardship Report and its column in the Huffington Post, is funneling all proceeds from this event to Next Generation Nepal, a U.S.-based charity that works to reform orphanage practices in Nepal. 

Conor Grennan, author of "Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal" and founder of Next Generation Nepal, represented the organization at the event. 

De Rafelo organized this event to raise funds and awareness for these organizations and, in keeping with the work of The Stewardship Report: Connecting Goodness, invited others in the area to participate. De Rafelo is a humanitarian field worker as well as the founder of Hands In, a company dedicated to providing a fair trade marketplace for goods produced by indigenous cultures the world over, and S-3 Works, a sustainability consulting concern. 

Local charities were represented by Wendell Minnick of Greenwich, co-founder of the Amoris Foundation; Ronnie Maher of Norwalk, founder of NicaPhoto; Lynn Yen of Greenwich, founder of The Foundation for the Preservation of Classical Culture; Dr. Danielle Duret of New York, adviser to Uni Haiti, and Ellen Picard of Greenwich, who serves on the board of the Friends of the Byram-Shubert Library. 

Business sponsors included The Drawing Room of Cos Cob, Old Greenwich Fine Wines & Spirits and the Darien Garden Centre.

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