Filmmaker-Philanthropist Thomas

Aspen Snow Ball

The Aspen Snow Ball gala on February 8th is the centerpiece of four days of festivities at the famed ski resort in support of the Children’s Oncology Support Fund (COSF). Jay Leno will host the evening and Christie Brinkley will be honored with the Philanthropic Achievement Award. Chairs, board members, and hosts include Rachel Zoe, who was last year’s honoree, Christina and Ivy Getty, Monica Elias, Keni Silva, Bill and Giuliana Rancic, Brooke Burke, and Kyra Kennedy. Robin Thicke and Swedish songbird Zara Larsson will perform at separate events for guests including actor William Abadie, better known as Antoine, the fragrance house mogul in Emily in Paris, and Real Housewives’ Kyle Richards and Erin Lichy.

Children’s Hospital Colorado

Held at the St. Regis Aspen, proceeds from this year’s Snow Ball will go to Children’s Hospital Colorado where COSF has established an endowment to fund wellness programs for kids affected by cancer and the hiring of art and music therapists and child life service therapists. “It’s an endowment that will provide stability to ensure that children in treatment at the Center for Blood and Cancer Disorders and their siblings have access to these programs in perpetuity,” said COSF founder Thomas Pierce.

Also part of the exclusive weekend is a Kickoff Benefit Concert on Thursday at the Aspen Art Museum, with which COSF has partnered on a campaign about art therapy and the importance of access to art for children. Friday’s “Saddle Up and Shop” event has ten brands donating 25% of proceeds to COSF, and that evening is a VIP Benefactor Dinner for top supporters. On Sunday, board members Carly and Scott Weber will host a Super Bowl party at ZIGZAG, their new Aspen restaurant.

“Aspen is so enchanting and I wanted to share it with our donors,” Pierce said. “We wanted to create a destination event so we can really get full focus from our donors and build community. And it really is pretty magical when you’re dressed up in black tie in a small ski town.”

GIVING Tuesday

New Yorkers didn’t have to head to the ski slopes to support COSF, whose mission is to fund the development of less toxic therapies for pediatric cancer patients across the U.S. New Yorkers attended a holiday dinner on Giving Tuesday at private club Coco’s at Collette that featured a performance by Broadway star Michael James Scott. Top New York donors include members of the Rockefeller and Hilton families, along with actors like Thomas Doherty of the Gossip Girl reboot and Karla Sofia Gascon, who is getting Oscar buzz for her performance as a drug lord in the Netflix musical film Emilia Perez. Partygoers included jeweler Kayla Rockefeller and her parents Kimberly and photographer Steven Rockefeller, model and oil heiress Ivy Getty, Candace Bushnell, Author of Sex in the City, Peter Thomas Roth, Adrien Lesser, Isabelle Bscher, Janna Bullock, Ashley Wyndham, heir to Whydamn Hotels, orange house wife Keni Silva, Nikki Haskell, and 20 others of that ilk and stripe.

COSF Founded in 2022

Snow Ball 2025 will be the third iteration of the stellar event.

In January 2022 Pierce hosted a cocktail party at a friend’s home with a small silent auction table of 20 items. “I really wanted to host a gala that year but with the conditions of COVID and the restrictions, we decided to host just a little cocktail of 40 people,” he said. He was able to meet community leaders and share his idea of starting the foundation. That one cocktail event raised $200,000, which funded Snow Ball.

“That covered our deposit for the hotel along with other production costs to get things in motion.” Chopard got involved as the presenting sponsor, and Farfetch as co-presenting sponsor. Diana Ross was confirmed as headline performer the first year, and Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden hosted. “Marcia and I go way back,” Pierce said. “It was a really special time. But it was all bootstrapped with the vision to bring a glamorous event to raise money for these children.”

Spurred to Action by Personal Tragedy

The impetus to found COSF arose from the death of Pierce’s friend, Pamela Johnson, from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Philanthropist Thomas in her mid-20s. Pierce got involved with Denise Rich’s Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation for Cancer Research, started its Next Generation Circle of Philanthropists, and there learned how to mobilize and lead. He was also on the Next Generation board at UNICEF.

“I had a passion for children being our future and a passion for helping in the cancer space, and I merged the two after realizing what the data looked like with pediatric cancer and the need for programs to ensure kids have access to childhood activities while in treatment.”

Once COVID hit, he realized that a lot of fundraising programs dependent on live events were at risk. “I thought what better time to start a foundation and help the problem.”

Filmmaker & Philanthropist

Pierce, a filmmaker and philanthropist, is executive producer of The Brutalist, in theaters December 20, starring Adrien Brody as a famous Jewish architect from Budapest who escaped the holocaust and came to New York. The film is already getting Oscar buzz and just won Best Film at the New York Critics Circle Awards. “We look for projects that could drive a media conversation and shift the minds of its audiences. And you could do that through entertaining content.”

His next film, The Wizard of the Kremlin with Jude Law playing Vladimir Putin alongside Alicia Vikander, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, and Tom Sturridge, begins shooting in January.

COSF foundation, cosffoundation.org