Mission to Lima

In her role as a crusader for forgotten, impoverished children, Kim Valentini is responsible for raising money among some of the wealthiest, most beautiful people in the Twin Cities. She has connections of her own—during one of our conversations, she tells me that 75 percent of the revenue is from “friends of myself and David”—and she clearly understands how to make new friends. To that end, she knows how to throw a party. Before my trip to Lima, I attend a Smile Network function in Wayzata. One of the first people I am introduced to is Kathy Buchanan, the manager of Tiffany & Co. in Galleria, who seems especially pleased by the quality of the turnout. “They seem younger,” she says. “And fun, and they have the money . . . .”

The party, a Fendi trunk show, is hosted by Nancy Bigos, the wife of real estate mogul Ted Bigos, and her neighbor Mary Holmes. Nancy is affectionately known in Wayzata circles as “Nancy Big-house” because she loves to entertain in her $20 million contemporary castle on Lake Minnetonka. The party came together when the Fendi boutique in Aspen agreed to send its inventory to Minneapolis for an exclusive afternoon of shopping. But before guests encounter the busty mannequins draped in $100,000 Russian sables set up in the Bigoses’ sunny front sitting room, they are drawn to the Latino children’s before-and-after cleft-surgery photos that have been mounted on Styrofoam boards and fetchingly arranged on the foyer’s grand staircase.

Nancy Bigos hired Chef Ted to assemble the hors d’oeuvres, and a full wait staff is on hand to make sure the A-list crowd is efficiently plied with mimosas. Local TV personalities Amelia Santaniello and Esme Murphy are here, as are athletes’ wives such Brandi Garnett, neighbors such as Aussie hair product queen Cindy Redmond, and society women Anastasia Hoft and Darin Opperman. The five valets hired for the occasion ensure that nobody will have to wait more than two minutes for her Mercedes SUV. Bigos, in a tasteful white ensemble, glows like a bride as she greets her guests, knowing full well that bringing Fendi to Wayzata will boost her East Bay cred: This array of $5,000 Spybags and $50,000 coats can’t be found at Nieman Marcus, and Fendi will sell $100,000 worth of merchandise this afternoon and another $40,000 the following night at a small party in Solera’s banquet room. The Smile Network will take 10 percent of the proceeds on both days.

Bigos acknowledges her good fortune. “I know, I know—‘Nancy got Fendi,’ ” she tells me. “But I’m honest. I tell them it fell in my lap and I took it.” She laughs. “I guess Fendi called The Smile Network first, actually. And they’ve been negotiating for, like, eight months.”

Valentini’s background is in marketing—she worked as the manager of tourism at the Mall of America before moving into Steven Schussler’s restaurant concepting company—and she believes The Smile Network provides an outlet for her particular gifts. “For me, it’s a combination of all the different careers I’ve had,” she says. “Public relations. Marketing. Operations. Management.”  Her experience comes across at trunk shows like the one at Nancy Bigos’s house or openings such as the one at La Belle Vie.  “In order to be really successful as a nonprofit you have to engage people on all different levels,” says Valentini. “And people have different reasons for participating. For some people, it’s the gift of a skill that [other] people can use. For some, it’s to write out a check and feel good about making a difference. And for some, it’s spending time.”

One of her most effective innovations has been to partner the charity’s medical missions with adventure travel. Her solution for making people who can’t hold a scalpel or operate a respirator feel intimately involved in helping faraway people is called “Miles for Smiles.” While the surgeons are operating on the children in Lima, eight Minnesotans—including David Valentini and their son, Gino—are hiking the Inca Trail, twenty-six miles up the ancient stone steps the Incas laid from Huayllabamba to the “lost city” of Machu Picchu. The trekkers raised $50,000 in private sponsorships before they left home, thus funding the entire medical mission. In the future, the The Smile Network plans to combine a hike along the Great Wall while the medical team is working in China, and to backpack in Phuket during a mission to Thailand.