Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom to lead UCSF Children's Hospital benefit

* WHEN: 1:15 to 2:15 pm, Friday, October 1

* WHERE: UCSF Children’s Hospital, 505 Parnassus Ave., San Francisco, in Moffitt Cafe on the hospital’s second floor.

* WHAT: Kickoff of the 2004 Macy’s Holiday Tree fundraiser for UCSF Children’s Hospital, featuring Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom, SF Police Chief Heather Fong, representatives from Macy’s West, young UCSF patients and members of the cast of the Lion King.

For the second year, Macy’s San Francisco is making its annual Holiday Tree Lighting a charitable event to benefit UCSF Children’s Hospital, Northern California’s center for more than 85 years for extraordinary care and innovative research for children and their families.

To kick off the fund-raiser, Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom will deliver the keynote speech at a party for the UCSF community. Guilfoyle Newsom is a Court TV anchor and a noted legal analyst for CNN and MSNBC, whose husband is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. A San Francisco native and an active community volunteer, she is the honorary chair of the Macy’s Tree Lighting - UCSF Children’s Hospital fundraising campaign.

San Francisco Chief of Police Heather Fong will speak about the support that officers from the SFPD have given to UCSF Children’s Hospital. Members of the department were among the first to sell tickets to sponsor lights on the 2003 Holiday Tree.  With UCSF Medical Center CEO Mark Laret and representatives from Macy’s West, they will join some of the young patients from the 180-bed children’s hospital as well as the UCSF community.

Cast members from Disney’s THE LION KING, the award-winning Broadway musical, now playing at the Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco, will be on hand to entertain.

Macy’s 15th annual tree lighting ceremony will be held on Friday, Nov. 26 (the day after Thanksgiving) from 6 to 6:30 p.m. The event, Macy’s annual gift to San Francisco, is free and open to the public. Tree lights can be sponsored at $10 each to illuminate the 80-foot fir tree in Union Square. Every penny of tree light sponsorship goes to programs that support children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Tickets will be on sale at Macy’s Union Square, at the UCSF Medical Center/UCSF Children’s Hospital gift shop on Parnassus Avenue and at www.ucsfhealth.edu.