British ambassador hosts MDA-Hellas fundraiser party
British Ambassador Simon Gass and his wife Marianne held a garden party for women at the ambassadorial residence on Loukianou in Kolonaki in support of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA-Hellas). The proceeds will go towards the establishment of a clinic in Thessaloniki. The hostess, flanked by MDA-Hellas president Vana Lavida and vice president Kaiti David, greeted her guests in the main drawing room, where Helbi photographed them beneath a portrait of Byron in Greek national dress. The garden looked superb, ablaze with spring flowers. The ambassador read out a message from Education Minister Marietta Giannakou, who was unable to attend, congratulating MDA-Hellas for its work, which, she wrote, «deserves the moral and material support of us all.» Gass did that part in fluent Greek, then switched to English to deliver a short speech on women and diplomacy (published on Thursday in Kathimerini English Edition). Introducing his talk, Gass noted that both Greece and Britain had recently acquired female foreign ministers: Greek FM Dora Bakoyannis, whose mother Marika Mitsotaki was the guest of honor, and British FM Margaret Beckett. Warm applause greeted his speech and the afternoon ended with a lavish buffet.
