‘Taking It To The Table’: Holiday House Table Top In Palm Beach Returns With Top Designers To Raise Funds For Breast Cancer Research

There is power in numbers, power in pink, power in flowers. Add artful design and philanthropy to the mix, and there is power in purpose.

Those were the takeaways from Holiday House Design’s third annual “Taking it to the Table” event at The Colony Hotel in Palm Beach. The event featured the artistry of top interior designers who created stunning and sometimes whimsical settings and vignettes to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 

Created by longtime breast cancer survivor, designer, and co-chairwoman Iris Dankner, the event drew a festive crowd of almost 400 supporters who reveled in the display of beauty and elegance. The VIP celebration with a made-to-order caviar station sponsored by Lugano Diamonds with Lewis Miller Design featured a jaw-dropping tablescape inspired by the sophistication of the original film “The Pink Panther” while evoking the glamour of Palm Beach. 

Flower historian Jill Brooke of @flowerpowerdaily, who judged the event’s first floral competition, added this perspective: “Flowers always teach us we can bloom again.” 

And bloom they did. The Colony Hotel, also known as “The Pink Paradise,” simply glowed in a variety of vibrant floral centerpieces while a palpable sense of design and camaraderie filled the vignettes in the Coral Ballroom.

“Palm Beach is known for its strong philanthropic spirit and exceptional design influences,” said the event’s honorary chair and owner of The Colony Hotel, Sarah Wetenhall. “This event highlights Palm Beach’s generosity and creativity, using design to inspire hope and drive progress in the fight against breast cancer. It’s a privilege to be part of a community committed to making a difference.”

Table Top Palm Beach Philanthropy Chair Jean Shafiroff, who has supported this cause for many years and has certainly attended her fair share of benefits in New York, the Hamptons, and Palm Beach, seemed genuinely stunned by the event.

“The tables created by the designers are some of the most beautiful tables I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Shafiroff. “The Breast Cancer Research Foundation is an incredible charity doing so much research. My mother and my grandmother both had breast cancer, and I feel very compelled to support this, among many other causes, of course. And Iris Dankner has done an incredible job with the Holiday House Designs.”

When Dankner took the microphone to thank the crowd and “the village it takes to produce this,” she acknowledged how “we have all been touched in one way or another” by breast cancer.

“To my fellow survivors,” said Dankner, “let our scars be a reminder that we are warriors and that we could not let cancer bring us down.” The crowd cheered.

Iris Dankner’s indomitable spirit is infectious and inspiring. The Holiday House Design events she started 18 years ago, held first in New York City, then in the Hamptons and Palm Beach, have since raised over two million dollars for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. 

We caught up with Dankner, a longtime Hamptons resident, a week before attending “Taking it to The Table” in Palm Beach on February 24 to discuss her life-saving passion project.

How did Holiday House begin?

I was diagnosed with my first routine mammogram at age 40, and it was at a time when nobody even said the word “breast cancer,” it was something that was whispered, and I actually had no one to really talk to — it’s not like it is now when people connect you with people for support. It was a time when it was embarrassing, and you didn’t share it. 

And I have two young girls, and I started fundraising basically as a way to help myself heal.

I created a team for the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. It was called Iris’s Bosom Buddies, and it was an opportunity for me to teach my girls about fundraising and that they don’t have to be embarrassed that their mom had breast cancer… and we could celebrate that I was a survivor.

Before I knew it, I was asked to be on the board of (Susan G.) Komen, and they asked me to chair the Race for the Cure. I chaired the Race for the Cure for three years, and then I was invited to be a delegate at The Race for the Cure in Egypt… the next year, I worked with the Knesset, creating a Race for the Cure in Israel, and we turned the wall pink. 

I get home, and now I have a full-time design career and a full-time fundraiser. So, I came up with the idea of Holiday House, which was a way of combining my two passions — my love for interior design and my passion to raise money to find a cure. 

How did the Table Top evolve from Holiday House, which featured designer showrooms in a house?

I started Holiday House in the city, and then, during Covid, it was tricky. We did virtual showcases with the support of Hamptons Magazine and HGTV… and as the world started to open up, I realized what we were really celebrating was being back at the table; that’s kind of what I missed for two years was entertaining, being together, so I came up with the idea of the Table Top show. We started that at Topping Rose (in Bridgehampton), and people were just so excited to be going out to events again and loved the idea of celebrating. It was called “Coming Together.” We did it there for two years, and then my committee said, “You have to bring this down to Palm Beach.”

What is the goal?

My goal is to raise money to find a cure. My goal is actually to live in a world without breast cancer; that’s my ultimate goal, but I would say how lucky we are to all have each other, to connect, and to be there with each other when people are going through this.

What has helped you get through the most challenging times? What advice do you have for those dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis?

I always say, “People are like tea bags; they don’t know how strong they are until they get into hot water.”

I would have never, ever thought that I could have dealt with that — it’s really helping others that has helped me. When I get a letter or a call — and I’ve gotten so many — from someone who said, “I heard you talk, so I went for my mammogram, and they found cancer, you saved my life,” or “You saved my daughter’s life,” that makes me feel really good… doing good while we’re having fun.

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Angela LaGreca is a four-time Emmy award-winning producer, writer, and comedian. She can be reached at angelatvmedia@gmail.com.