footage of the City of Joy school; plus, a new Gardens of the World?

Thanks to Ankit's sharp eyes, we can now see video footage of the dedication of the first of many new Indian schools, paid for by Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's dress. It shows Dominique Lapierre and his wife arriving at the school, plus some children performing songs and dances to celebrate their new school. Dominique himself has a bit to say about Audrey, and the clip also shows the December 2006 auction of the dress in London, plus footage of the lovely Audrey herself in the iconic first scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's. You can go here to view the video (try here or here if the first link doesn't work, since BBC is a little weird about linking to their videos).

The Telegraph from Calcutta, India has a wonderful article about the new school and the Lapierres' work for the children of India. I love the way the article opens, too:

In Sudan, they call a water pump Unicef. And courtesy Audrey Hepburn and her new huckleberry friend, villages in South 24-Parganas and the Sunderbans might soon start calling their primary schools by some other name — Dominique, perhaps.

I'm sorry if I'm boring anyone with this continued coverage of the school opening, but I personally think it's very big news and something Audrey herself would have pushed hard for if she was still here. It meant so much to her, therefore it's important to me.

Lastly, I came across an article today that really only mentions Audrey in passing, but it's still terribly interesting (especially if you're a flower nut, like me). It seems that Janis Blackschleger, who produced Gardens of the World and became quite chummy with Audrey, met up with an Englishman living in California and mentioned that she wanted to do an updated Gardens of the World series. I don't know if others feel the same way, but after watching the series recently myself, I really wished they would have kept making more episodes, even if it had to be without Audrey. It's really an engrossing series (though Audrey did accent the flowers rather nicely), and there are so many more lovely gardens yet to see, plus new flower hybrids being created every day. If you find this sort of thing interesting, you can read more about the new possible series here. Janis herself will be at the Philadelphia Flower Show on March 10 to talk about Irish gardens (what the article above is mostly about), if anyone is in the neighborhood and would like to pick her brain about working with Audrey. :)

"When you were with Audrey you felt prettier, better about yourself and your own possibilities."
-Janis Blackschleger