KEY POINTS:
It is said that it's easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven. Well, there are a few well-heeled folk in this city who won't have any trouble at all getting past the pearly gates.
Friday night was the Starship Foundation's 15th birthday, and the foundation held a gala ball to help raise money to rebuild the children's cancer ward.
As is typical at these events, there was a silent auction and an auction featuring more valuable items - a diamond tennis bracelet went for $10,000 and a week skiing in Colorado went for $16,000.
I'm always amazed at the numbers of people willing - and able - to dig deep for a good cause.
Heaven knows there are plenty of worthy causes. Just in the past month, I've MC-d a do that raised $250,000 for the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation, attended functions for the Look Good Feel Better and Kids Can charities, helped out with an impromptu auction at the PaperPlus conference that raised $15,000 in 10 minutes for Cure Kids, and I'm running the New York marathon with 10 other people to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Trust.
Next weekend I'm attending two functions - one an auction in Hamilton to raise money for a gorgeous 18-year-old girl who's fighting a brain tumour, and on Saturday night a do in Auckland for the Upside Downs Trust, the organisation for parents of kids with Down syndrome.
That's just a month's worth of charity dos and there will, no doubt, have been more.
And behind the pictures in the social pages, and beyond the black ties and the boobs and the bling, are people who think nothing of forking out thousands of dollars to support worthy causes. Philanthropy and altruism are relatively new concepts for Kiwis who have grown up with a welfare state.
For generations, we've accepted that the state will provide, but increasingly, as the state is providing less and individuals are demanding more, we've looking to the wealthy to make up the shortfall.
A new study from the University of New Mexico has found that blatant benevolence - giving generously - is a sign of evolutionary fitness.
Helping charities may appear to be at the opposite end of the selfishness spectrum from conspicuous consumption - yet researchers say both involve the profligate deployment of resources and that's an attractive feature when it comes to the mating game. Certainly, all the generous souls I've seen at these functions aren't lacking for companionship, and mighty fine looking companions they are too.
But I think the act of giving - certainly with these charities - goes way beyond flashing your cash around to attract hotties.
Anyone who's heard a mother talking of her child's experience of cancer, or listened to an eloquent young man with cystic fibrosis recount his struggle to live a full life while battling this disease, or witnessed a young mother's battle with breast cancer, can't fail to be moved and to give what they can.
And whether that's empathy, pure and simple, whether it's a sacrifice to the gods in the hope that your family will be spared, whether it's blatant benevolence, who really cares when the result is improving the lot of those increasing numbers of people who need a hand.
