The Lab School of Washington filled the cavernous National Building Museum for its 25th Anniversary Gala with 1,300 guests -- and Vice President Joe Biden on a rainy Nov. 11 evening. The veep told supporters of the Reservoir Road institution, founded in 1967 to help students overcome learning disabilities, that he tamed his stuttering by reciting Yeats and Emerson while standing in front of a mirror to see his facial reactions.
"To be great is to be different," said Biden, alluding to the trials of those who are learning-disabled and named such as greats as Jesus and Luther. "God's gift to me was my stuttering," he said. "But don't let your learning disability define you." He went to say he might be in trouble with his grandkids for choosing the Lab School over Sidwell Friends School, which also held an event that night. The audience applauded that comment.
Biden was introduced by emcees George Stephanopoulos and his wife, actress Ali Wentworth, whose sister, Sissy Yates, has a son, Angus, studying at the Lab School. Aunt Ali introduced Angus and then promptly told her nephew to be seated. Noting that he did not get that job 20 years ago with then-Sen. Biden, Stephanopoulos of ABC News acclaimed the vice president as "a regular guy," who makes for "good copy."
New Lab School head Katherine Schantz honored the memory of school founder Sally Smith, saying that she had some big shoes to fill. Luckily, Schantz added, "Sally left her staff, and they are walking in her shoes."
The gala's honorees were actress Lara Flynn Boyle, who could not attend, William E. Milliken, founder and vice chair of Communities in Schools, and Jonathan Mooney, author of "Learning Outside the Lines" and "The Short Bus."
= Vice President Joe Biden addresses gala attendees.
= Maddy Tennis, whose father is on the Lab School board, and Natasha Samtani
= Elaine Wynn, chairman of Communities in Schools, honoree William Milliken, granddaughter Alex Milliken and Sally Quinn
= Katherine Schantz and Randy Smith
= Gala co-chairs Nancy Taylor Bubes and Sissy Yates with Davis Camalier
= Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.) and his wife Leslie Meek
= Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and wife Ann Simpson admire gift from school parent Lalie Tongour. (The photo shows Simpson and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy with wives Ann and Vicki during a Lab School gala.)
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