| EVENT REPORT 10.07.08 4:26 PM |
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YouthAIDS Gala Trashes the Ritz-Carlton (Sort of)
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 | The YouthAIDS gala at the Ritz-Carlton
Photo: Jonah Koch for BizBash |
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The Ritz-Carlton doesn’t generally encourage trashing its rooms, but Simon Cooper, president and chief operating officer of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, made an exception for the YouthAIDS gala after-party Friday night. To go along with this year’s “The Power of Music” rock 'n' roll theme, YouthAIDS deputy director Marshall Stowell recreated a rock band’s trashed hotel suite in the Tysons Corner hotel’s Old Dominion room, tossing lingerie on the light fixtures, tilting picture frames, and artfully arranging broken lamps, pizza boxes, and empty Jim Beam bottles on tabletops.
“I have to say, hats off to Simon Cooper,” said Stowell, noting that Cooper co-chaired the gala with BET co-founder Sheila Johnson. “He was fully onboard with the theme of the after-party. He allowed us to take that liberty with the Ritz-Carlton, which is such a lovely hotel. They were terrific sports about it.”
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YouthAIDS, Ashley Judd, Sharon Osbourne, Bob Geldof, Anna Kournikova, Annie Lennox, Johnson & Johnson, Aldo, Kiehl's, American Beauty, John Mellencamp, Cartier |
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| NEWS 09.30.08 3:36 PM |
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YouthAIDS Benefit Gets Rock 'n' Roll This Year With Graffiti, Tattoos, and John Mellencamp
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 | The 2007 "Faces of India" YouthAIDS benefit
Photo: Eric Powell for BizBash |
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Children’s graffiti normally isn’t found on the walls of the Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner's grand ballroom, but for this year’s YouthAIDS benefit on Friday, guests will find exactly that. The event, dubbed “The Power of Music,” is enlisting the help of graffiti artist turned fashion designer Claw Money, who worked with local kids through a nonprofit called Words, Beats & Life to create large panels of graffiti which will be hung over black velvet draping in the ballroom.
“Graffiti has always been closely tied to music,” YouthAIDS deputy director Marshall Stowell said today. The musical theme will be hard to miss—not only will a large tour bus and a fake punk band be parked outside the hotel’s entrance, but tattoo stations, rock and roll-themed drinks, and Rock Band video game stations will be set up throughout the reception and auction areas.
Stowell, who is overseeing the event, explained that YouthAIDS has always used music to reach at-risk populations. “Many people in the 60 countries where we operate are illiterate or of low-literacy,” he explained. “We bring in DJs and street music and dance to educate them on the HIV risk and direct them to clinics.”
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YouthAIDS, John Mellencamp, Ashley Judd, Sharon Osbourne |
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| TOP 100 EVENTS 09.26.08 2:00 PM |
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Washington's Top Benefits 2008
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 | The Soccer Ball for D.C. Scores at the Organization for American States
Photo: Paul Morigi |
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1. Knock Out Abuse and Fight Night Gala
This November fund-raiser is actually two parties: a cigar-and-boxing-fueled Fight Night, which raised $2.4 million for nonprofit Fight for Children in 2007, and the Knock Out Abuse gala, which raised $650,000 to combat domestic violence. Actor Chris Tucker and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia were among the 2,200 guests at the Washington Hilton and Towers for Fight Night, while a crowd of 750 flocked to the Ritz-Carlton, Washington, D.C., for the gala. Everyone then merged for an after-party at the Ritz. Liz Warnecki of Fight for Children coordinates Fight Night, while the gala is produced by Andre Wells. Both parties return on November 6.
2. The Opera Ball
French ambassador Pierre Vimont’s Kalorama residence played host to the Washington National Opera’s largest annual fund-raising event on June 6. Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff attended the Midsummer Night’s Dream-themed garden party, which featured 4,000 glass votives, five chandeliers hanging from a tree, and 15 lighting displays. Patti Humphrey, special events director for the Washington National Opera, planned the 500-person party.
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RELATED TOPICS
Washington's Top 100 Events, Fight for Children, Knock Out Abuse, National Geographic, Population Services International, YouthAIDS, Corcoran Ball, Best Buddies, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Fight for Children's School Night Benefit, Fight for Children, Meridian International Center, W.N.O., Washington National Opera Midwinter Gala, Prevent Cancer Foundation, Prevent Cancer Foundation's Annual Spring Gala, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Gourmet Gala Benefiting St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Washington Ballet Spring Gala, Washington Ballet, Larry King Cardiac Foundation, Heart of America Foundation, National Symphony Orchestra, Heart of America Foundation's Sweet Charity Benefit, Leon Harris, Artrageous, March of Dimes Gourmet Gala, March of Dimes, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Ambassadors Ball, Folger Shakespeare Library Gala, N.F.L. Players Gala, Phillips Collection Annual Spring Gala, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Muscular Dystrophy Association's Heartsongs Gala, Spina Bifida Association, Washington Performing Arts Society Gala, Capital Area Food Bank, American Red Cross, American Red Cross Fire and Ice Ball, Soccer Ball for D.C. Scores, D.C. Scores, Humane Society, Washington Humane Society Bark Ball, Trust for the National Mall Luncheon, Bono, Ashley Judd, Jay Leno, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, James Brown, David Gregory |
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