It was truly an enchanting night with Simin Hashemizadeh, as she opened her beautiful hill top mansion to host a charity fundraiser gala to support the Larry King Heart Foundation. Friends, family, and internationally renowned physicians, high-profile attorneys, big names in the music and entertainment industry…they all gathered to enjoy a fabulous evening for an incredible cause. The setting couldn’t have been more perfect—outdoors under a moonlit sky, over- looking city lights, and dining on an array of delicious Persian food.
In attendance of course, the CNN television broadcasting icon himself Larry King, and his beautiful wife Shawn King. Larry had the one-hundred guests in stitches as he took the microphone and brought down the house with hilarious story after story. Shawn joined Larry at the mic and they kept the crowd laughing throughout the event. Everyone loved them. Not to be forgotten was the heart of the evening…The Larry King Heart Foundation and the incredible work it does helping those in need of heart surgery, but without funds to pay for it. Simin, a gorgeous Iranian socialite has, since she moved to the United States become involved in supporting many national, state and local charities. Her generous support reaches out to all nationalities and all religions. Whether it is fighting against animal cruelty, helping the homeless and sick, or helping fund research for life-threatening diseases, Simin puts her heart and soul into helping others.
“I love and respect Larry King so much for the work he does fighting heart disease, Simin said. “Many times in our comfortable lives we don’t even see the people suffering who need help. It’s up to each of us to open our eyes to the pain of others. This party was not about having fun… this party was about gathering people together to inspire them to generously support charities that change lives.”
Within days of Simin’s lovely event, a dark cloud was cast as terrible news came from her country of Iran. When I met with her, the sadness in her eyes was overwhelming. On the verge of tears she had this to say:
“This is a very sad time for me, the people of my country want nothing more than freedom and to live in peace. It is in my nature to try to fix problems. Now I have a pain in my heart because I see so many people suffering in my country and there is nothing I can do. These past days I’ve asked everyone what we can do to stop the killing of all these people. We see the world watching blood being spilled, but who with power will step up and do something? Someone needs to end the torture and killing of these innocent men, women and young people. Even on television we are not seeing the true brutality of what is happening. Acid is being thrown on the crowds, boiling water tossed from helicopters, soldiers are going into private homes at night and killing people or dragging them off to prison—it is a horrifying mass torture of people who have done nothing wrong, but vote in an election for their freedom. What the world does not see is that I come from a people who are loving, generous and well educated. They want to live in peace and pray every minute to have their country again what it once was.“
