The Omni Nashville played host to the 2019 Hermitage Gala. Kim Holbrook and Robin Puryear chaired the beautiful event with Amos Gott as the event designer. Guests started the evening with cocktails and conversation while bidding on items in the “Exceptional Experiences at The Hermitage Silent Auction”.
After being seated in the ballroom, guests were welcomed with remarks by Andrew Jackson Foundation Regent Board of Trustees, Robert McDonald. For dinner, guests enjoyed a fabulous menu that started with a roots and leaves salad of wild arugula, red kale, baby spinach, roasted petite carrots, carrot top pesto, wild flower honey and carrot mousse, shaved crudite, spiced seeds and fromage blanc. For the main course, guests feasted on roasted tenderloin and chicken with mustard seed caviar and warm apple cider vinaigrette, braised beets and greens, smoked blue cheese mashed potatoes. To finish there was a dessert of Manjari hazelnut tarts with strawberry jam, hazelnut and Himalayan sea salt brittle and bitter chocolate shards.
During the meal Howard Kittell, Hermitage President and CEO and Richard Cowart presented Louie and Laurel Buntin with the 2019 Lewis R. Donelson Award. Robert McDonald and Howard Kittell presented Senator Lamar Alexander with the 2019 Jackson Award. Judge George Paine introduced this year’s keynote speaker, Pulitzer-Prizing author and historian, Rick Atkinson. Guests received a copy of his most recent book, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777. Funds raised help the Andrew Jackson Foundation continue its mission which is to preserve the homeplace of Andrew Jackson, to create learning opportunities and to inspire citizenship through experiencing the life and unique impact of Jackson.
