Fundraising/Green Ideas

Guests entered through a hall covered with the faces of people whom the Robin Hood Foundation helps.

Statistics about education and poverty in New York and famous quotes from writers like Thomas Carlyle punctuated each sculpture, including a structure made from JanSport backpacks, baby onesies, and Lego-like blocks.

The idea of "giving 100 percent" worked its way into every element of the event.

The New York skyline topped one of the bars, re-created with cans of corn.

Pairs of tube socks formed a plume of smoke coming from the house built of T-shirts and towels.

Thousands of actual pencils taped to a giant pencil sculpture gave it authentic coloring.

"The chair was the one that eluded us for the longest," said designer David Stark of the structure that required 2,000 bottles of water to be individually clipped into place.

Some 1,500 New Yorkers will receive a new pair of Nikes after the cyclone is dismantled.

XO laptops replaced flowers as centerpieces in the dining room, flashing images of bouquets and alerting diners to their next course.

A 360-degree graphic of the New York skyline, with Robin Hood's signature silhouette, surrounded the dining room.