Wax on, scrubs off!
“Karate Kid” star Ralph Macchio swept doctors and donors off their feet at Brooklyn Hospital Center’s 28th annual Founders Ball at Barclays Center on Tuesday night. But for some attendees, the biggest kick came not from meeting the winner of the 1984 All Valley Karate Championship, but seeing their colleagues out of their regular hospital garb and in gowns and tuxes.
“It was great to see everybody in a different setting than you see them in everyday,” said Natasha Fievre, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the infirmary.
Seven-hundred revelers attended this year’s extravaganza — many of whom, like Mr. Miyagi, know more about fighting for lives than fighting for points.
They ultimately raised $1,340,950, which will go towards improving the Fort Greene center so it is the best around, according to Brooklyn Hospital Foundation vice president and chief development officer Deborah Niderhoffer.
Showing no fear or mercy alongside Macchio at the shindig were Vincent Piazza of “Boardwalk Empire” fame, Pix 11 anchor and event emcee Sukanya Krishnan, and Tony-winning playwright David Henry Hwang — a neighbor who famously walked himself to the hospital last year after a stranger stabbed him in the neck.
This year’s gala was the first in the event’s history without a sit down dinner, and guests instead hob-nobbed throughout the stadium and three of its rooms, before getting down to oldies, hip-hop, and funk tunes — but sadly no Joe Esposito — in Jay Z’s 40/40 Club.
