Northwestern Mutual’s mission is quite a lofty goal: To make the communities they serve the most financially secure in the world. “Given our success here in St. Louis, we’re trying to serve the community from both a client perspective and a charitable perspective,” says Gerard Hempstead, managing partner at the company’s St. Louis network office. His office has a goal of giving at least $500,000 in monetary donations and 5,000 hours of community service before 2015. “It’s actually stated in our vision and we track it,” he says.

If you were among the record 7.24 million viewers who tuned in to last weekend’s Tony Awards, you know that Kinky Boots was one of the evening’s biggest winners, giving Webster University alum JERRY MITCHELL his second Tony (the first was for his choreography work in La Cage Aux Folles in 2005). Bravo!

The St. Louis Rowing Club continued its stellar season by claiming the first national championship in the program’s history this weekend in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

There were merely seven Mexican gray wolves left worldwide in 1971. Today, the population is past 300 living in captivity, with more than 70 additional wolves living in the wild, thanks to Missouri’s Endangered Wolf Center.

Piccione Pastry has a sweet new deal for area nonprofits. The late-night Italian bakery shop, which opened in the Delmar Loop this April, is serving up Pastries With a Purpose.

A region-wide cakewalk, a Valentine’s Day ‘Burnin’ Love’ festival at Forest Park, and a giant heart sculpture in the Grand Basin are some of the highlights on tap for ST. LOUIS’ 250TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION in 2014. This week, before a gathering of the city’s civic and community leaders, the new nonprofit, stl250, announced some of the key events to commemorate the city’s founding by Pierre Laclede in 1764. The 2014 celebration will be co-hosted by Mayor FRANCIS SLAY and St. Louis County Executive CHARLIE DOOLEY. Stl250 co-chairs are Ameren’s TOM VOSS, and his wife, CAROL; with ERIN BUDDE as the organization’s executive director. Stay tuned, LN will have more details about the semiquincentennial milestone in the coming weeks!

Countless clients credit Bethany Place with saving their lives.

If anybody was destined to have a career in sports, it was Jay Delsing. But Jay decided not hit curve balls or blast penalty kids: He wanted to hit wedges.

This Georgian-style brick home is now operated as a decorative arts and history museum. No other home in the region boasts this type of fine craftsmanship.

There are headaches—and then there are headaches. Migraines are in a category all their own. About 12 percent of Americans suffer from these pounding headaches, according to the National Institutes of Health. A type of vascular headache, migraines are notable for their severity and unique characteristics that some people experience, such as visual disturbances, stomach upset and a notably one-sided quality.

MISSION: Fathers’ Support Center works to improve the lives of children by bettering the father-child relationship. Fathers enroll for at least one year of program involvement, which starts with an intense six-week course meant to grow family, communication, relationship and employment skills.

Maybe you've tried every recipe plan, diet book and exercise video out there in an effort to finally reach your ultimate weight-loss goal, yet you keep coming up short. But your past doesn’t have to be your future, according to Charles D’Angelo. The weight loss coach, who has come full-circle himself—losing 160 pounds more than a decade ago—is in the business of motivating people to change the script in their heads to achieve healthy lifestyle goals. “The key is to drop the excuses and tap into that God-given spark that everyone has to fulfill their dreams,” D’Angelo says.

Story: A poet enters the theater and ascends to the stage. He walks over and introduces himself to a musician seated off stage left. He returns to center stage, turns around and views a triptych of sorts that has an ancient look to it. There’s also a chalkboard that the poet uses to drive home certain points, a simple table and chair, a briefcase and a trunk that contains the tools of his trade.

For many St. Louisans, the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park is their single-most favorite public structure. Designed in the Beaux-Arts style and sited on a majestic hill that overlooks the Great Lagoon, the building is arguably the finest example of Classic Revival architecture in St. Louis.

Friends and family say that Megan McCarthy Strout and Ryan Emerson Maher were meant to be together—even if their paths often seemed to lead them apart.

The new 2014 Aston Martin Vanquish was recently unveiled in St. Louis to great acclaim and fanfare, during a first-class affair hosted by J.J. Mills and Graham Hill of St. Louis Motorsports. The guest list included Julian Jenkins, the regional director for Aston Martin of the Americas, who led the introduction of the new 2014 Vanquish in the beautiful newly remodeled Aston Martin showroom.

When it comes to summer fun, St. Louis makes it easy to be a kid—or stay young at heart. Follow this family-friendly guide to the city’s best summer attractions for kids—and their parents.

Story: Young Frederic is turning 21, which means that his apprenticeship with the jovial band of brigands known as The Pirates of Penzance is about to end. He warns the genial Pirate King and his men that he will, naturally, work to eradicate them once he is a free man. That’s the noble thing to do, says Frederic, even though his pals all are orphans and have a reputation for letting their captives go once their defeated foes inform them of their own orphaned status.

Chef EDWARD FARROW has been tapped to oversee the kitchen at the soon-to-open Panorama Restaurant in the Saint Louis Art Museum's new East Building, set to debut this summer. Farrow is a CIA grad and a member of Slow Food and is known for his dedication to local purveyors. Most recently, he served as executive chef at the cafe of the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Az.

Autoimmune disorders are insidious. The body’s own protective mechanism, the immune system, turns on itself, attacking healthy tissue and organs by mistake. Lupus is one autoimmune disease that affects an estimated 1.5 million Americans, according to the Lupus Foundation of America (LFA).

Let’s begin with one of the biggest myths about arthritis: There are two kinds—osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Wrong!

Story: Three monologues by English playwright Alan Bennett depict the plights of a trio of middle-class, middle-aged Brits who share the common trait of loneliness. Nights in the Gardens of Spain concerns a homemaker, largely ignored by her husband, who becomes involved in an unlikely friendship when her neighbor is convicted of killing her own abusive spouse.

Lots of events on the books now that the weather has (hopefully) come around:

Steve Scorfina, antique 'picker,' was once the lead guitarist for legendary rock band REO Speedwagon, and later, the iconic ‘70s St. Louis band, Pavlov’s Dog.