Polo player Brandon Phillips playing in the 2016 Polo for a Purpose event.
Brandon Phillips Brings Lessons From The Polo Field To Philanthropy STORY BY MELANIE OTERO • PHOTOGRAPHY BY LILA PHOTO
Brandon Phillips approaches philanthropy the same way he does the polo field: Surround yourself with a great team, make it fun and bring your competitive spirit. It’s a philosophy that the Wellington resident and world-renowned polo professional has followed for the past four years as the founder and honorary chair of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Polo for a Purpose event. Always believing he can do more, Phillips has helped grow the event from a luncheon that raised $60,000 in 2013 to a full day of events that raised six times that amount — $360,000 — in 2016. He is determined that this year’s Jan. 16 event at the International Polo Club Palm Beach will best a half-million dollars and attract an even greater number of guests. The program begins at noon with a luncheon, silent and live auctions and a cocktail reception. At 3 p.m.,
the grounds of the venue will open for scheduled family-friendly activities, and at 4 p.m., there will be a concert by Gipsy Sound Revolution. One of Phillips’ first experiences that drew him to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society was personal. As a survivor of stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that struck at age 14, Phillips was asked by LLS to talk to a Boca Raton boy named Bruce Steinberg who was going through recovery. Steinberg wanted to meet a professional athlete. What he found in Phillips was a lifelong friend. The two first met at Phillips’ stable in Wellington. As Steinberg admired the horses, the survivors discovered they were like-minded in how they fought their cancer battles.
(Above) Lisa and Bruce Steinberg with Brandon Phillips and P.J. Rizvi at last year’s event. (Below) Polo players take to the field to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
wellington 35 wellingtonthe themagazine magazine| |january january2017 2017 35