Sonoma County’s Rick and Wendy Tigner honored by Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research

There’s always a charge when Sonoma County’s Wendy Tigner, wife of Jackson Family Wines chief Rick Tigner, reunites with Michael J. Fox.

“They have like a kinetic relationship,” said Rick Tigner. His Wendy and the “Back to the Future” star met again in New York City at a celebration of efforts to defeat Parkinson’s disease, which menaces them both and millions of others.

Fox and his Foundation for Parkinson’s Research presented the Tigners a VIP award for the $750,000 they raised for the mission at last year’s huge Tour de Fox Sonoma County cycle ride, and at a golf tournament at Mayacama Golf Club.

All told, benefit events hosted by the Tigners have in recent years generated $2.5 million to advance the Fox Foundation’s work.

Wendy Tigner might tell you she’s never forgotten when, not terribly long after her diagnosis, Michael J. Fox advised her, “Don’t let Parkinson’s define you. You define Parkinson’s.”

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TALLULAH’S POEM: It was very hush-hush why Tallullah Lefkowitz, a sophomore at Petaluma High, abruptly flew off with her mother to London.

No one was to know prior to the grand announcement that the 16-year-old Petaluma native had won a major international prize: first place in the Young Romantics Poetry competition hosted by the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.

Her 30-line poem, “The Step of Two,” inspired by a ballet duet that Tallulah, also a serious dancer, performed with a friend, drew praise from Chair of Judges Baroness Floella Benjamin. “Oh my gosh, she was amazing,” Tallulah said.

She also met the award celebration’s special guest, Sir Bob Geldof, who drew global attention to starvation in Ethiopia with his song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

Tallulah’s prize was 700 British pounds - about $900.

“I’m hoping I’m going to save it for college,” said the poet and dancer. “I have an idea that’s not how it’s going to work out.”

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$304 WAS GONE. After several weeks, the high-spirited women who regularly carry a nice breakfast into the former Santa Rosa Avenue motel that’s become a residence for homeless veterans and others were sure they’d never see the money again.

It had been tucked into one of the two plastic bins that the women, most of them retired teachers, deliver monthly to The Palms. Also in the bins are napkins and utensils and other essentials of the hearty buffet the volunteers set out for all interested residents.

The 13 women bake or cook most of what they serve, and they drop a few dollars each into a kitty used for the purchase of items such as coffee, paper supplies and hugely popular individual boxes of cereal.

How the $304 in the kitty left the bin, the women will likely never know. For various reasons, they truly do not believe the stash was stolen.

They’d accepted that it was gone forever when, the other day, Margie Pettibone of Catholic Charities phoned with news: a man who lives at The Palms had reported finding the money on a counter in a common area, wrapped in paper towels.

Not a buck was missing. The women in their second year of preparing a monthly breakfast for the residents feel all the better about doing it, and all the better about encouraging the rest of us to consider if there’s something we might do.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.