Broughton Quarterly - Spring 2009 - (Page 36) PHOTO COURTESY OF TCREINER.COM PHOTO BY RON MURRAY At home in Santa Barbara (above), Montesano has raised three beautiful children. Daughters Teddy and Sienna (above left) pose with dad at Lucky’s Black Tie & Blue Jean Gala, while at left (l. to r.), Gianni and Gene line up with Damon Wayans, Jesse Perlman, Joe Cocker, and Barry Perlman. PHOTO BY RON MURRAY FOR THE CHILDREN ood and fashion are what everyone thinks Gene Montesano wants to talk about, but in reality he’d rather spend the bulk of any conversation concentrating on another f-word: his foundation. That was apparent a few weeks ago over lunch at Café Luck, when Montesano, between bites of his hamburger, couldn’t stop talking about the Lucky Brand Foundation, which he was inspired to launch after attending an AIDS fundraiser in 1994. “I thought,‘We can do something like this’,” remembered Montesano. As the father of “three beautiful kids,” Montesano had always felt pangs in his heart when seeing children with Down syndrome and their parents, many of whom appeared constantly distraught.“They have it really tough,” he said. “It’s the first time that a parent would rather their kid go before them, because who will take care of the child if they die first?” So he oriented his foundation to donate directly to causes that make life easier for sick children and their parents. The Lucky Brand Foundation—which gives between $600,000 and $700,000 a year to more than 30 charities—has no overhead costs, and rather than give to well-known and massive organizations, Montesano chooses to fund truly homegrown nonprofits, often started by parents who had nowhere else to turn. Included in the list are Camp Sundown, a program for kids allergic to sunlight; Lucky Smiles, a new partnership with Children’s Hospital to fund cleft lip and palate surgeries in this country and abroad; and the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation, a Santa Barbara-based nonprofit that helps F local families dealing with childhood cancer. Being a lover of the good life, Montesano also manages to put the “fun” in fundraising with the annual Lucky Brand Black Tie and Blue Jean Gala, a swanky extravaganza held each November at the Beverly Wilshire. It’s now one of the most anticipated events of the year and has raised over $8 million since its inception. That event is also mirrored every two years in Miami, where Montesano and his buddy Barry Perlman return to their hometown as heroes. Speaking of Barry, he and Gene remain best friends, and still work together on Lucky Brand, even though the company itself was sold to Liz Claiborne in 1999. On the verge of his sixtieth birthday, Montesano shows no signs of retiring, heading to Vernon three times a week and working the other days out of his office in downtown Santa Barbara, across from the Lucky Brand store on State Street. A master of fashion, purveyor of fine food, and benefactor of the less fortunate, Lucky Gene and his golden touch are an inspiration to all. But the modest mogul is quick to give credit to luck, karma, and the land of his birth. “This is a real place where you can dream,” he said of America, “and it can all come true.” Q To learn how you can support the Lucky Brand Foundation, go to LuckyBrand.com or call 310.899.9191. 36 broughton Quarterly SPRInG 2009 http://www.LuckyBrand.com
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