TEACH scores Peyton Manning and cool $1.1 million
The fifth annual Touchdown for TEACH (To Educate All Children) played the field, and scored big.
Per usual, a heavily guarded, VIPs-only reception was the hot ticket. For the first time in memory, however, cellphone photography and video with the guest of honor was strictly prohibited.
Which posed a unique question: If a partygoer attends a fundraiser with Peyton Manning and doesn’t have the social media post to prove it, did the encounter even happen?
Most patrons happily obliged the new rule, relinquishing their handbags and smartphones for professional snapshots on a step-and-repeat with the two-time Super Bowl winner and MVP of Super Bowl XLI.
Though what the acclaimed quarterback really wanted to talk about was baseball.
“Are y’all still celebrating that World Series win?” he asked patrons during the exclusive meet-and-greet.
Meanwhile, dinner attendees steadily filled the River Oaks Country Club ballroom to capacity.
“This event is absolutely, 100 percent sold out,” Spencer
Tillman, master of ceremony, confirmed from the podium.
Kelly Krohn, TEACH’s departing executive director, followed to thank the generous donors (H-E-B and MCL by Matthew Campbell Laurenza), chairs Carol and Michael Linn, and DeeDee and Wallis Marsh, and event underwriter Fayez Sarofim, who contributed to the recordbreaking $1.1 million raised.
Funds, she explained, help provide calm and safe learning environments from more than 8,000 Houston-area students.
To drive Krohn’s point home, Attucks Middle School principal Renita Perry recalled finding a former student wandering through downtown Houston immediately following Hurricane Harvey. A parent had kicked the teenager with special needs out of the family home, and he’d been wandering the streets for four days without proper medication.
“You can’t pick your parents, and you can’t pick your ZIP code,” Scott McClelland said during his honoree remarks. “But with a great education, you can climb up that socioeconomic ladder.” Later, TEACH co-founder
Susan Sarofim joined Tillman onstage for a good, old-fashioned roast.
Their target? Manning, of course.
The duo poked fun at the retiree’s DirecTV ads by slipping into matching bathrobes and singing, “I think this looks good on me,” to the tune of Nationwide’s signature jingle. Manning has starred in commercials for both companies.
“I’ve dreamed about this moment,” Sarofim quipped once Manning demanded a robe, too. “I always wanted my picture with Peyton and Spencer onstage in a bathrobe.”
As dinner was served, social notables including Hallie Vanderhider, Sippi Khurana and Grace Kim donned referee shirts and roamed the room to collect donations. Within minutes, the black-and-whitestriped entourage retrieved more than $200,000.
Tillman and Manning closed the program with a highly anticipated one-on-one Q&A session. When asked what he missed most about playing football, Manning answered, “those plane rides home after a big game.”
“The next time a flight attendant tells you that the plane can’t take off until everyone is seated and phones are turned off … well, that is just not true.”
Airborne celebrations aside, he spoke of favorite coaches, growing up with brothers
Eli and Cooper Manning, preparedness, and that infamous United Way sketch on “Saturday Night Live.”
“That entire segment almost didn’t happen. I was really nervous about hurting the children when one of their parents ran up and said, ‘I want you to hit my kid in the face,’ ” Manning recalled as the crowd roared with laughter. “I replied, ‘I will do it. I will knock your kid out.’ ”
Fortunately, no one was injured during Tuesday night’s benefit. Based on 2017’s Touchdown for TEACH final stats, next year’s recruits have their work cut out for them.