More News Interview by Patrick Cole “I’m going to try to sing along with him,†said Midler, 63.
“Our crowd is a little bit older than him, and we sing songs from the 1920s and 1930s, so we’ll see what we come up with.†Midler, who has won three Grammys and four Golden Globes, started the shortly after she moved to the city in 1994 and saw many parks littered with trash. “He’s a give-back kind of guy,†said Midler during an interview while attending the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute’s benefit last Thursday at the . “We came to him and proposed that we renovate the garden, which kids and grownups could use to plant vegetables, and he said, ‘Where do I sign’†Her organization’s eighth Annual Spring Picnic fundraiser is a casual event that costs $500 per person and takes place at Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan. The menu includes barbecued beef ribs, organic chicken, pulled pork, asparagus, macaroni and cheese and an ice-cream bar, Midler said. Tony Bennett, Tim Gunn
Midler hopes the event will raise about $800,000 and give her organization a much-needed boost. Donations to the nonprofit, which has operated with an annual budget of $6 million a year, have been down by about $200,000 this year, she said.