Haven’t we all survived at least one function that caused us to nod off?
There was so much going on at the opening gala for downtown Denver’s new Residence Inn that even a stifled yawn would be highly unlikely. Had the sandman come calling, though, he’d have found most everyone dressed for beddy-bye.
It was a pajama party like no other, with everyone from Mayor John Hickenlooper to Frontier Airlines spokesman Andrew Hudson decked out in PJs, robes and goofy slippers to help raise $50,000 for Denver’s Commission to End Homelessness.
The mayor, who’d been to a suit-and-tie affair earlier in the evening, was met at the door by hotel principals Walter Isenberg and Evan Makovsky. They pointed the way to a room where hizzoner could change into a red nightshirt, tiger-stripe slippers and white cotton bathrobe with the Residence Inn logo on the pocket.
“It was only under duress provided by two of our leading citizens that I’m doing this,” Hickenlooper confessed, adding that while the robe and slippers were borrowed, the nightshirt was the real deal. “My mother made it for me 24 years ago,” he said.
Hudson, whose band provided the party’s music, said his first thought was to dress like Hugh Hefner in silk jammies with matching robe. But once he discovered how pricey such a look would be, “I decided to go with the $6 look from Target, instead.”
Denver City Councilwoman Marcia Johnson reflected her inner cowgirl by donning fringed PJs, red boots and a cowboy hat. “You don’t wear those boots to bed, do you?” asked Roxane White, Denver’s manager of Human Services.
Qube Visual’s Josh Hanfling topped his striped pajamas with a plush terrycloth robe, and confided it was a good thing he didn’t show up in what he usually wears to bed: his birthday suit.
In addition to ticket sales and any robe or slipper purchases, Isenberg and Makovsky said they were donating 100 percent from every room booked that night (the hotel was just shy of 100 percent occupancy) to the Commission to End Homelessness. Bartenders were donating their tips and vocalist Steve Manshel gave proceeds from his CD sales.
A former member of the group Firefall, Manshel performed “Depending on the Graces of Others,” a song about homelessness inspired by his stint as a UPS driver making deliveries to homeless shelters.
Refreshments ran the gamut from salmon and pizza to such tried-and-true sleep aids as milk and chocolate chip cookies.
The wide-awake crowd also included Denver City Councilwoman Elbra Wedgeworth; John Parvensky, president of Colorado Coalition for the Homeless; deli owners Gerard and Sheila Rudofsky; retailer Molly Broeren and hubby Bill Mosher, a developer and chair of the Denver Convention Center Hotel Authority; Chris Chavez, a member of the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships Commission board; Patty Farmer, a wedding and event planner at the new $5 million Canterberry Club in Parker; Mary Beth Vitale; Barry Gilbert; Elaine Wolf and Larry Nathan with her daughters and son-in-law, Mikki Wolf and Sandy and Walter Yearick; Irma and Leonard Strear; and Milender White Construction president Bryon White with his wife, Jeanne.
Efforts are lauded
Proof that nice things happen to good people came when Mountain States Region of the Anti-Defamation League presented its 2006 Civil Rights Award to Tim Gill and Lucia Guzman, two longtime Denverites who have fought the good fight to ensure equal rights for all.
Gill made his fortune by founding Quark, a desktop and Internet software company. After stepping down as the company’s chairman and chief technology officer, he continued to put his money to good use by providing financial support, via the Gill Foundation, to a variety of causes, especially those dedicated to equal opportunity for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. Guzman is the daughter of a Mexican farmworker and railroad laborer and is executive director of the Denver Agency for Human Rights and Community Relations. She’s also a member of the Denver School Board and was the first Mexican-American to be executive director of the Colorado Council of Churches.
They received the awards from James Kurtz-Phelan and Scott Levin, co-chairs of the ADL’s civil rights committee, at a luncheon at the Marriott City Center.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
