Dallas’ Luxury Ambassadors Mansion Party Late Into the Night: Viral MLK Speech 9-Year-Old Delivers a Rousing Surprise

What: NorthPark Center’s 2018 Luxury Ambassadors Dinner

Where: Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek

PC Moment: Often the best parties are similarly orchestrated: an intimate setting, a carefully constructed guest list (and razor-sharp seating arrangement), some unexpected entertainment, and eloquent conversation that lingers late into the night.

The dinner celebrating NorthPark Center’s 2018 Luxury Ambassadors checked every box.

Chaired by Kimberly Schlegel Whitman, the PaperCity-sponsored Luxury Ambassador program is a diverse group of doers and philanthropists. Each ambassador chooses a charity to support throughout the year, raising awareness and funds via events held at NorthPark’s retailers.

For this occasion, the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek’s dining room was cleared for a romantically lit cocktail hour, and NorthPark’s inimitable grande dame, Nancy Nasher, took to the dais to thank the ambassadors and their guests — each had been asked to invite two representatives from their chosen nonprofit.

Après cocktails, the dining room’s Veranda doors were opened for the first private dinner ever held in the space; nearly 50 guests filled two long tables elegantly dressed in Mansion-style rose-gold hues.

Then came the evening’s surprise: 9-year-old Wesley Stoker delivered his Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition-winning speech, which had gone viral the weeks prior. His message of love, compassion, acceptance, and living out your hopes and dreams could not have been a more fitting message to kick off a year of benevolence.

Seen: NorthPark Center Luxury Ambassadors Charlotte Jones Anderson, Lisa Cooley with husband Clay Cooley, Claire Emanuelson, Nancy Gopez, Kenny Goss with sister-in-law Joyce Goss, Niven Morgan with partner Shelby Wagner, and Steve Stodghill, as well as NorthPark Center VIPs Kristen Gibbins, Meredith Marceau, and Kristin Casner; and the Mansion’s top brass, Tracy Fitz and Katie Norwood.