by Mark McDermott
The 32nd Annual Manhattan Wine Auction on June 6 raised a record $2 million for Manhattan Beach public schools, a 43 percent increase over last year’s event and the largest single-night total in the auction’s history.
The dramatic jump was driven in part by the public launch of the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation’s Grow $5 Million in Five Years campaign, an effort to expand the MBEF Endowment as a long-term funding source for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District. The campaign’s launch Paddle Raise generated $800,000 in pledges, banking 16 percent of the five-year target in a single night.
A second $800,000 came from the silent and live auctions, which featured more than 700 bottles of wine, luxury travel experiences, dining packages, and entertainment lots. More than 2,500 guests filled the Manhattan Country Club for the sold-out event.
“From the moment guests arrived, there was a palpable sense of excitement, optimism, and shared purpose,” said Hilary Mahan, MBEF Executive Director. “Our community didn’t just show up — they engaged, connected, celebrated, and invested in the future of our schools.”
Mahan said the energy throughout the night was higher than at any previous Wine Auction she has witnessed.
“It really stemmed from a community that needed to see good done,” she said. “They needed to witness what change can mean and what impact can mean.”
The evening’s signature moment was the presentation of the 2026 MBEF Legacy Award to Rich Weiss, who has served on the MBEF and MBEF Endowment boards for 22 years and has been the volunteer Chief Investment Officer of the Endowment for most of that time. Weiss, a 43-year veteran of the investment management industry and Chief Investment Officer of the Multi-Asset Strategies division at American Century Investments, drafted the Endowment’s original Investment Policy Statement, led the $20 Million by 2020 campaign that grew the fund past that milestone, and was the architect of the structural decision to dedicate Wine Auction proceeds specifically to the Endowment.
In introducing Weiss, MBEF Endowment President Roger Spencer noted that Weiss’s commitment extends well beyond board service and financial stewardship.
“Whether donating wine to the Wine Auction, leading volunteer efforts, hanging signs at every table at the Wine Auction every year for 20-plus years, or just stepping in quietly whenever help is needed, Rich embodies the spirit that we honor tonight,” Spencer said. “Rich Weiss represents the very best of Manhattan Beach. For more than two decades, he has combined vision, expertise, and an unwavering dedication to public education. His legacy will be measured by the opportunities he created and the generations of students whose lives will be enriched because of his foresight and leadership.”
Weiss accepted the honor in characteristic form.
“Rich Weiss — holy shit, I would love to meet that guy,” he opened, to laughter. “I’m obviously honored, but more than honored, grateful. My wife Ginny is here, and two of my three daughters. We’ve been living here 40 years. We got married here, our kids went through the school system, and we just feel very lucky for all that the Ed Foundation and the Wine Auction has done for us as a community.”
Weiss then redirected the room’s attention toward two people he said the audience should know.
“It takes a village to put this together,” Weiss said. “You’re talking about dozens, hundreds, thousands of people over literally decades. But allow me to call out two people who I think you need to know. If you’re wondering how all this started, there are obviously a group of people, but if you want to point to the big bang of the Wine Auction — who literally started it 31 years ago — he’s right there. Brad Jones. The father of the Wine Auction. Joan is right next to him. You would be hard put to find two people who’ve done more for this community than those two.” [He was referring to Joan Jones, who, along with her former husband Brad Jones, is a past MBEF legacy honoree.]
The second person Weiss singled out was Manhattan Beach City Attorney Quinn Barrow, who recruited him to MBEF two decades ago.
“The gentleman who invited me to volunteer to this cause is my good friend Quinn Barrow,” Weiss said. “Quinn, by the way, is also the city attorney for Manhattan Beach. So anybody who has an unpaid parking ticket — he’s like the Nucky Thompson of Manhattan Beach.”
Weiss’s deflection of credit echoed throughout the night, but it did not stop the community from giving in his name. Mahan said the “Friends of Rich” effect generated more than $150,000 in gifts during the Paddle Raise from supporters honoring Weiss, plus a $50,000 personal contribution from Weiss himself.
Major commitments to the Endowment campaign came from Chevron, the Bay Club, the GG Foundation, and numerous individual donors. Founding Sponsor Chevron, along with JP Morgan, Kirkland & Ellis, and OrthoArizona, served as major event sponsors. The Bay Club, which owns the Manhattan Country Club, again hosted the event without charge and underwrote a significant portion of the operating costs.
Forty-five restaurants and more than 80 wineries, breweries, and distilleries served and poured. Local favorites including The Strand House, Love & Salt, Baleen Kitchen, and Fishing with Dynamite, were joined by newcomers The Butchery, Tiki Kai, and Tipsy Falcon. The exclusive Reserve Room welcomed 500 guests for premium culinary experiences and rare wine tastings from labels including Bevan Cellars, Dakota Shy, and Somnium. Best of Wine Auction honors went to Uncorked for wineries, Stecca Taverna for restaurants — its second consecutive win — and Saint Rhum for breweries, distilleries, and other beverages.
The $2 million raised at this year’s event will flow primarily to the MBEF Endowment, which currently provides $1.4 million annually toward MBEF’s grant to MBUSD — about 18 percent of the foundation’s overall $8 million commitment for the 2026-27 school year. MBEF has now contributed more than $130 million to Manhattan Beach public schools since its founding in 1983.
This year’s record was set against the most severe budget pressures MBUSD has faced in a generation. In March, the Board of Education preliminarily authorized the reduction of up to 58.85 full-time positions. By May 6, after early retirements, MBEF class size reduction grants, and additional state funding filled gaps, the reductions came down to 32.25 FTE — with the foundation explicitly credited by the district for pulling that number down. More layoffs are expected to be rescinded in the weeks ahead as the Governor’s May Revise — which projected as much as $15.6 billion in additional K-12 funding statewide for 2026-27 — works its way through the Legislature, and as the district moves to lower its Reserve for Economic Uncertainty.
That MBEF support was anchored in the foundation’s annual appeal, which had already set a record before the year’s deepening budget crisis prompted MBEF to extend the campaign in pursuit of additional funds. The original $7.636 million commitment was itself the largest single-year grant in MBEF’s 43-year history and the direct source of the class size reduction grants the district credited at its May 6 board meeting. The extension is now expected to push the foundation’s total 2026-27 grant to roughly $8 million.
The MBEF board has voted to hold that additional $400,000 raised through the extension until the state’s final budget for the year is settled, Mahan said. If MBUSD receives additional state funding sufficient to address class size, the foundation will direct its surplus toward enrichment programs rather than gap-filling.
“We want to ensure that we’re really impacting student learning in the best way possible,” Mahan said. “Class size certainly is important, and we know how high of a priority it is for everyone — our stakeholders, our teachers, our families, and students as well. But we also recognize that we can’t always be there to fill the gap, and timing is everything here. So if we’re able to focus this last $400,000 on more enrichment, then we’re going to do so.”
For Mahan, what the night signified beyond its fundraising total was a community choosing to invest in long-term sustainability at exactly the moment it would have been easiest to retreat.
“This is my sense — that the success of our annual appeal and the success of the Wine Auction is even more impactful than any other year because of the challenges we’ve had and because of the challenges our district is going through,” she said. “What this says to me is that people believe in MBEF and understand we are separate from the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, and we are dedicated and committed and successful at doing our job. That belief in our efforts is shining through now in a time when it could have been the exact opposite.”
“This could have been the time period for MBEF and for the Wine Auction that really was more challenged and failed at doing what we’d hoped to do, because people might have felt unempowered or disengaged and disheartened. But I’m really proud of what we were able to do.” ER
