Bob Kaliski celebrated the Academy Awards in 2011 by walking the red carpet wearing a homemade eye patch.
He’ll repeat the red carpet stroll outside 142 Throckmorton Theatre this Sunday, dumping the eye patch and leather vest – a homage to Rooster Cogburn in 2010’s True Grit - in favor of some Bermuda shorts and a Tommy Bahama shirt, ala George Clooney’s Matt King in The Descendants.
“I don’t particularly like being dressed to the nines,” Kaliski said. “But being the head of the foundation, I do a lot of galas. So this is fun. I’ll be the fat version of George Clooney – it’s pretty easy.”
Kaliski is the co-founder of the Harbor Point Charitable Foundation, the 7-year-old charitable wing of the Kaliski family’s Harbor Point Apartments, Tennis and Swim Club, which recently celebrated the opening of its new fitness center in Strawberry. The organization hosted an Oscars viewing party at 142 Throckmorton last year to benefit the To Celebrate Life Breast Cancer Foundation, one of the beneficiaries of the foundation’s annual Esurance Tennis Classic.
They’re doing the same Sunday – this time to benefit Kiddo, the Mill Valley private educational group that pays for arts programs and an ever-increasing portion of the Mill Valley School District’s annual budget.
“We are honored to be working with the Harbor Point Charitable Foundation,” Kiddo Executive Director Trisha Garlock said. “Their focus, as well as ours, is to support quality education in the Mill Valley community and we are proud to partner with them on this event.”
Bob and his brother Ray Kaliski Jr. attended a dance event at Strawberry Point School last year and were blown away. When they learned more about the state of arts education funding in California, they decided to focus its next Oscars night even on Kiddo.
“We felt that this was a good mix for us,” Kaliski said. We want to support the local kids in the arts. A lot of these kids who get into the arts at a young age end up going to Marin School of the Arts.”
Since 2005, the foundation has contributed more than $700,000 to nonprofits through donations and by hosting events like the Oscars party.
The 411: The Harbor Point Charitable Foundation’s 2nd annual Oscars viewing and costume party is Sunday, Feb. 26 from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 142 Throckmorton Theatre. Tickets are $75 and can be purchased through at the box office, at 415-383-9600 or at the theater’s website.
