"The AZ Insider" with Kathy Shayna Shocket: Get the inside scoop on Arizona's social scene and celebrity news.

During an informal breakfast for Tesseract School parents - I asked a few of the heavyweights to join me at the chess table.

The beautiful chess set was just too tempting….. Because Tesseract- (it has two pricey private school campuses in Paradise Valley and Northeast Phoenix) has made some bold moves in this unpredictable economy and ATTENDANCE is up! There are 108 new students this year. And they’ve been able to give out more financial aid.

“Pretty unbelievable in this economic climate,” says Nathan Learner, vice chair of its board of trustees. Nate’s pictured above on the right, across from the Head of School, Nigel Taplin and Parent Association Co-chair Donna Cleinman, who echo his sentiments. They credit curriculum, and parent involvement, among other factors. In fact, Katie Lincoln is board chair. Her children are grown, but she remains on the board, strongly supporting the school. “There is emphasis on the individual child,”she stresses.

Katie hosted a wonderful dinner party at her Paradise Valley home for Tesseract’s new parents. I couldn’t resist snapping some pics of Katie and Mills Sinclair admiring the wedding photo of Katie’s parents David and Joan Lincoln. The Lincoln family (as in the hospitals - John C. Lincoln Health Network) are a major part of Phoenix history. By the way...Mills Sinclairs’ children are also grown, and he also remains on the Tesseract board.

Here’s one of the great emotional moments I captured behind the scenes of the first KTAR Radiothon for Phoenix Children's Hospital. If you look in the above photo, just over the shoulders of KTAR Vice President and General Manager Scott Sutherland (on the left) and Steve Schnall, Senior Vice President of the PCH Foundation (on the right)-- you’ll see the numbers board on the Wendy’s tote board. It says $652,000. That was just about two hours prior to the 28 hour- two day simulcast of News/Talk 92.3 and Sports 620. The final total of the event sponsored by Five Star Ford and Health Net of Arizona- which also had a web based component- was over $850,000!!!!

Here’s KTAR’s Ryan Hatch, the radiothon’s executive producer. He’s posing for me with one of the many stuffed animals which were brought to the kids in the hospital. His 3 ½ year old daughter Layla Hatch sent an envelope covered in Disney princess stickers with $22.74 inside from her piggy bank. She wanted to “help kids feel better and get good flavored medicine like chocolate and grape.”

Here’s Gambo – of the KTAR 620 sports team Gambo & Ash, with one of the stuffed animals.

The team of volunteers in a tiny corner of the hospital’s cafeteria – manning phones, and running the live broadcast, was incredible. And walking from the parking lot to the radiothon in the hospital – with all the construction of the major expansion adjacent to the hospital – was symbolic.

Kathy Shayna Shocket is a Phoenix based writer. If you have a good item for The AZ Insider, you can email her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .