826 Valencia Executive Director, Leigh Lehman, and co-founder Dave Eggers started off the evening with a warm welcome to all of our attendees. They also shared with everyone a brief history 826 Valencia and the variety of 826 programs that this benefit will help to support. Then, with nary a cry of "BE STILL!" the lights went down and the audience settled in to view the film.

It may have been the Max – King of the Wild Things – crowns sitting atop our attendees’ heads, but there was a golden glint in the air as the film ended and the house lights raised to reveal our very special Q&A guests Spike Jonze, Max Records, and Catherine Keener. Wholphin editor Brent Hoff interviewed our special guests about their favorite Wild Things, plastic swordfights, and Australian accents. The audience was also treated to a short film that Spike had made for Maurice Sendak’s 80th birthday. It was a hilarious tale of babysitting, intrigue, and revenge, told from the perspective of a young Maurice Sendak, and starring Spike Jonze himself.

After the film, our special guests joined us for an afterparty at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Shadow puppets of Max and the Wild Things decorated the entryway, and partygoers either mingled amongst them or strolled through the museum’s Sendak on Sendak exhibition. It was a wild night indeed!

Thank you to all our loyal volunteers and generous donors for supporting 826, with special thanks to our guests Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers, Max Records, and Catherine Keener. Additionally, thank you to our sponsors for helping to make this event possible: the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Rickshaw Bagworks, Thomson-Shore, Clif Bar Family Foundation, Clif Bar, Harper Collins, McSweeney’s, Paxton Gate, Random House Mondadori, Sunborne Nursery, Urban Outfitters, San Francisco Zoo, West Elm Emeryville, Wild Planet Toys, and Warner Brothers Pictures.

Color Photos: Trish Tunney © 2009, courtesy of the Contemporary Jewish Museum
Black and White Photos: Colin Smith, courtesy of 826 Valencia