Producer Marty Richards (Chicago) was this year’s honoree at the 2nd Annual “Progress in Psychiatry Gala” at Capitale. The black-tie evening benefitted NYC’s Center for the Prevention of Mental Illness, directed by Dr. Robert Cancro, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at NYU. The multidisciplinary center’s mission is to identify the factors contributing to mental illness, understand why some individuals are at greater risk, and prevent the development of this illness at the earliest stages. At least one in five Americans are affected by anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia annually.

Among those lifting their champagne flutes to Marty were Art Garfunkel, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’s Carson Kressley and Ted Allen, Somers and Jonathan Farkas, Leba and Neil Sedaka, and the evening’s award presenter, Arlene Dahl. Almost everyone has known a friend or family member who has been touched by mental illness at some time in their life; how wonderful to see such an important issue confronted and celebrated.