Mon dieu!
Give people an opportunity to spend A Naughty Night at the Moulin Rouge, and what happens? They beat a path to your door, as the Limb Preservation Foundation discovered after settling on such a saucy theme for its 12th Mountain Mardi Gras.
The 650 guests, most of whom arrived at Belmar Event Center in Lakewood in costume, helped make the event a record-breaker by raising $169,000 – which exceeded the benefit’s $100,000 goal and pushed the cumulative total over the $1 million mark.
Linda Fine of Linda Fine Designs set the mood by decorating the party space with hand-painted murals depicting scenes from the Moulin Rouge in Paris and a chandelier made from moving mannequin legs dressed with fishnet stockings, hanging body-cast sculptures and thousands of hand-clapper beads and doubloons. Centerpieces were mini can-can dancers.
The festive atmosphere also included a buffet dinner donated and served by a host of restaurants, including Avenue Grill, Bambino’s Ristorante, Famous Dave’s Barbecue, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, the Atlanta Bread Co. and Gumbo’s Louisiana Style Cafe. Talents West put on a cabaret show; later there was comedy by Kevin Fitzgerald, the funniest veterinarian in show business, and dancing.
Highlights of the evening also included:
Presentation of a $100,000 check to Colorado State University President Larry Penley to establish the Ross M. Wilkins Limb Preservation University Chair at CSU. Dr. Stephen Withrow, director of the university’s Animal Cancer Center, said the money will be part of the seed funding for a joint $3 million campaign that will fund a research position in the field of musculoskeletal biology with the goal of finding the cause and a cure for bone cancer and other extremity diseases. Drs. Ross Wilkins and Bill Brown made the presentation.
A surprise announcement by Patricia McDonnell that the McDonnell Family Foundation was giving $250,000 for the Limb Preservation Foundation to use for patient assistance and childhood cancer research.
The crowning of Mr. and Mrs. Gary Storey of Ridgway as Mountain Mardi Gras king and queen. They were honored for their work in initiating the Limb Cancer Support Network, which provides peer counseling for limb cancer patients, family members and caregivers. Gary Storey is a two-time limb cancer survivor.
Mountain Mardi Gras was planned by a steering committee made up of Jan and Ross Wilkins; Sandie and Bill Brown; Linda and Larry Fine; Frank and Andrea Ciesel; Neil and Evelyn Butler, Susie Bogard; Nancy Lowentritt; Jim and Amy Martin; Robin Becky; and executive director Martha Simmons. A team of 150 volunteers also helped out.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jmdpost@aol.com.
