Brooke Burke Brings Dancing with the Stars Power To Houston For Operation Smile — Inside a $650,000 Night
Transforming the Lives Of Kids Through Cleft Lip and Palate Surgery
BY Shelby Hodge //
April McGee, Sneha Merchant, Brooke Burke, Viet Hoang, Stacey Lindseth at the Operation Smile gala (Photo by John Tran Photography)
The glamour with a capital “G” was real when television personality and Dancing with the Stars 2008 champion and program host from 2010 to 2013 Brooke Burke brought her star power to Houston’s Operation Smile Gala, held at the Royal Sonesta Hotel. The ninth annual benefit for the international nonprofit captured a record $650,000, bringing the total earned from its nine annual galas up to $3.5 million.
Viet Hoang, publisher and founder of Yellow Magazine, and Sneha Merchant, artist and philanthropist, created the event to showcase Houstonians’ commitment to transforming the lives of kids through cleft lip and palate surgery.
The successful evening was co-chaired by Stacey Lindseth and April McGee, with additional financial support the work of auction co-chairs Lara Bell, Kristen J. Cannon and Whitney Kuhn Lawson.
Brooke Burke, her daughter Sierra Skye Fisher and son Shaya had participated in an Operation Smile surgical program in Guatemala in June along with friends Chelsea Cordner, who jetted in from Florida to support the mission. Their trip was recalled in a moving video that held the black-tie attired clutch to rapt attention.
Fisher is a singer/songwriter and USC Music Industry student. So it was a treat for the audience when she opened the program with “Dreams,” performed her first country song, “How You Treat Me,” and closed with “Giving Tree,” which was inspired by the book she read every night as a kid. It is a song about giving with love and valuing what truly matters.
Taking bows as honorees on this evening was Houston Children’s Charity CEO Laura Ward, who with husband Dave Ward, received the John Connor Humanitarian Award; Tena Lundquist Faust and Tama Lundquist receiving the Wallis Annenberg Public Service Award; Julie Dang receiving the Hoang & Merchant Philanthropy Legacy Award and the Brooke Burke and family receiving the Founders Circle Award.
“Truly, I am humbled and honored to receive the Founders Circle Award for my family,” Burke told the gathering. “If there is a thank you in order, it is mine to give to Operation Smile for changing our lives. Showing up to help children is a life’s work, and I am deeply committed to Operation Smile to elevate their efforts.
“It’s not just surgeries. . . together we build hope.”
PC Seen: Operation Smile founders Kathy and Dr. Bill McGee, Al Lindseth, Wells McGee, Nick Merchant, Dr. Sippi and Ajay Khurana, Dr. Dane and Isabella Hoang, Nina Magon, Brittany and Dana Wetterer, Maria Moncada-Alaoui and Omar Alaoui, and Aly and Habiba Dhanani.
