Day, Date, Time: Thursday, December 15, 2005, 12:30-2:00 p.m.

Schedule:
--Lunch from 12:30-1:00 p.m.
--1:00 - 2:00 p.m.: The speaker's remarks and Q&A from the audience.
--2:00 - 3:00 pm: Copies of the new book, Love Always, Petra: A Story of Courage and the Discovery of Life’s Hidden Gifts, by Petra Nemcova and Jane Scovell, will be available for purchase and signing.
The publication of this book coincides with the one-year anniversary of the tsunami disaster that devastated coastal Thailand and its neighboring nations.
100% of Ms. Nemcova proceeds will go directly to the Give 2 Asia Happy Hearts Fund (www.give2asia.com). She established the The Happy Hearts Fund to support Chulalongkorn University and the Rajaprachanukroh Foundation in Thailand.
Give2Asia, a U.S. non-profit organization established by The Asia Foundation, increases the quality and quantity of charitable investments in Asia by providing personalized services to donors and non-profit organizations.
Link to Happy Hearts Fund

Please call Alan Schlaifer at 301-365-8999 if you'd like to be able to attend the reception from 12-1230 pm with Ms. Nemcova. (No guarantee, but early sign up helps).

Where: National Press Club, Ballroom, 13th Floor, 14th & F Streets, N.W., just two blocks from Metro Center

Metro, Parking: Metro Center; several private garages within a few blocks.

Attire: Business

Reservations:
Click here to reserve your seat(s)!!!
$28/person, inclusive for luncheon, for current Wharton Club,
Asia Society, International Club, and THIS (The Hospitality Information Service) members and their guests.

Public- all others: $35/person
In all cases, you must reserve in advance on our site. We have only a limited number of seats. Maximum of three guests per member or non-member (four per party)

You also have the option of contributing to Petra's Happy Hearts Fund;
All funds received by our Club for this purpose will be contributed directly to this charity.

As Petra told one British website (femalefirst.co.uk) after her return to the area devastated by the tsunami and viewed the orphaned children,
"They don't see you, they look through you and it was very heartbreaking.
I want to put the stars back in the children's eyes."

Your attendance at this luncheon, purchase of her moving book, and, if you choose, an additional contribution, you can help Petra achieve this goal.

Click here to reserve your seat(s)!!!

This luncheon will sell out, so please sign up early if you'd like to attend.

Description

This is the start of Petra Nemcova's amazing and true story of survival, not from a reality show, but from the reality of the nearly invincible forces of nature she faced in December 2004, as described in the New York Daily News of 12/28/04:

N.Y. supermodel held on for dear life for 8 hours in raging surf

BY ADAM LISBERG, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Jet-setting supermodel Petra Nemcova survived the terrifying Asian tsunami by clinging to the top of a palm tree for eight hours - wincing through the pain of a broken pelvis and haunted by the sight of her boyfriend being swept out to sea.

"This huge wave just pulled us out of the house," Nemcova, 25, told the Daily News last night from her hospital bed in Thailand. "It was so powerful I couldn't get up. I couldn't get out of it."

"People were screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming, 'Help, help.' And after a few minutes, you didn't hear the kids anymore."

Nemcova and her fashion photographer boyfriend Simon Atlee, 33, were spending the holidays in a beachfront bungalow at the Thai resort of Khao Lak when Sunday's catastrophe struck.

"I heard people screaming and I looked out the window and people were jumping out of the way, jumping into the pool," said Nemcova, who lives in New York and London and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated's 2003 swimsuit issue.

"I was screaming, 'On the roof! On the roof!' I tried to go on the roof but I got sucked away," Nemcova said.

Before she and Atlee could react, a wall of water shredded their wooden bungalow and sent them sprawling into a churning sea of debris that swallowed Atlee without a trace.

She kept her head above the floodwaters and was able to grasp a palm tree before she could be swept out to sea - but had to clutch it for eight hours, watching bodies float past in a scene of unimaginable devastation.

"I just tried to survive and tried to think positive," Nemcova said.

She gripped the tree in excruciating pain under the burning tropical sun until rescuers found her at sunset and carried her to an overwhelmed local hospital on a makeshift stretcher. . . .

About the book and the luncheon: Petra will share her stories of growing up and of launching a modeling career at age 18 in Milan, of success and fortune, despair and tragedy, but most of all, her story of her love for Simon Atlee, one that has not been extinguished by his untimely death. Simon, who lit up the lives of everyone around him, used to tell Petra, “a day that is without laughter is a day wasted.” In LOVE ALWAYS, PETRA: A Story of Courage and the Discovery of Life’s Hidden Gifts, the author seeks to transmit this message of hope and faith to her readers.

To be continued, in person with this courageous, inspiring and charming "miracle" woman, on December 15 at the Press Club. Please join us on this special luncheon to celebrate the holiday season and give Petra a warm welcome to Washington, DC.

Click here to reserve your seat(s)!!!