I approached Bette Midler on the red carpet with all the composure of a woman about to lose every bit of it. Here was one of my heroes, and I was taking my chance. “I love you so much,” I gushed. “I grew up on your Gypsy.” In the most Bette way possible, she replied, “Oh! Did you play it?” I nearly swooned.
No, Bette, I never did have your pipes. Hers, however, shaped my childhood. That perfectly timed response dispatched any polished introduction I might otherwise have managed. The little girl I once was took over, and frankly, I was happy to let her.
Fortunately, New York Restoration Project’s annual Hulaween gala offered ample occasion for theatrical surrender. On October 23, The Glasshouse hosted “Hulaween on Horror Reef: Monsters of the Deep,” raising more than $2 million to advance equitable access to nature across the five boroughs. For once, I was truly the least dressed up in the room. This is not a distinction I claim often.
Guests appeared as fantastical marine creatures, embracing the assignment with irresistible abandon. There were cute quips, intelligent innuendo, and the pleasure of watching grown adults take imaginative excess very seriously. Isaac Mizrahi and Rachel Antonoff judged the costume contest, with winners including Allie Provost as Rainbow Fish and Tripp Swanhouse, whose Out of the Sea won Best Upcycled Costume, an especially apt tribute to ingenuity and reuse.
Amid that aquatic mischief was a belief deserving our sustained attention: every New Yorker should have a welcoming place to encounter the natural world. A garden gate ought to open onto belonging. Children deserve to watch something grow; a neighbor needs a seat in the shade without being expected to buy anything. In a city where space comes at a premium, the freedom to enjoy a patch of earth carries enormous meaning.
Midler founded NYRP in 1995, putting that principle into practice. Its parks and community gardens support urban agriculture, educational programs, performances, and food distribution. These settings hold the ordinary intimacies that enrich a neighborhood, from exchanging advice over a shared harvest to discovering what has bloomed since your last visit.
Such beauty requires patient, physical labor. NYRP’s staff and volunteers restore shorelines, clear refuse, and nurture these places through the seasons. The organization reports removing more than six million pounds of trash and building or restoring over 350 public green spaces, with more than 1.6 million residents now living within a ten-minute walk of its sites.
Midler presented this year’s Wind Beneath My Wings Award to trustees Sophie von Haselberg and Harry Guinness, her daughter and son-in-law. Involved since the age of eight, Sophie spoke with passion and conviction about our environment and our obligations to one another: giving a damn, making an effort, and recognizing how far even a modest contribution can go.
Her sincerity moved the audience from tears to laughter and back again. She directed credit toward those in the field, reminding everyone how much commitment lies behind an afternoon outdoors.
With Mario Cantone as emcee, the entertainment featured Jessica Vosk, Sydney James Harcourt, and Will Lee and The Root System. Cyndi Lauper, meanwhile, blew my socks off. When “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” came on, the dance floor bounced with joy and reverence for the baddest of all time. She made a song we have known for years feel urgently, gloriously present.
House of Yes and DJ Boyyyish carried the celebration into the night. Once again, private donors and extraordinary patrons of the arts and civic life had stepped up for the rest of the city. Humanity, in one of its most beautiful forms, was fabulously attired and generous. The next morning, somewhere in New York, a garden would need tending. Hulaween had helped ensure someone would be there.
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