Mountain Mardi Gras may have started small, but in 15 years it has grown to be Colorado’s largest – and most delicious – Mardi Gras celebration.
The 750 who gathered at the Holiday Inn DIA this year raised $150,000 for the Limb Preservation Foundation’s patient assistance, education and research programs, pushing the cumulative total past the $1 million mark.
Mountain Mardi Gras came about when Larry and Linda Fine began suffering what they called “Mardi Gras withdrawal” after relocating to Denver in 1991 from their longtime home in New Orleans. As they looked for ways to become involved in the community, they discovered the Limb Preservation Foundation and its need to develop a signature fundraiser.
They recruited others from the foundation’s volunteer pool to bring a taste of New Orleans to Denver by staging the first Mountain Mardi Gras in February, 1992, at the Denver Design Center. The theme was Just West of the Bayou.
“We had no idea while we were building the props that would transform the Design Center into a stroll down Bourbon Street that this event would take off the way that it has, but we are thrilled with the outcome,” Larry Fine recalls. The LPF’s founder and president, Dr. Ross Wilkins, agrees. “We were not too sure if Colorado was ready for a costumed affair right after the first of the year, but it seems to have caught on and every year seems to be grander than the last.”
The 2007 edition, A Magical Muggles’ Masquerade, continued the tradition of imaginative costumes, an amazing auction, great entertainment, the crowning of a king and queen, and everyone’s favorite, the walkabout supper with food from a dozen or more local restaurants.
The Fines remain involved, co-chairing the benefit with Sandie and Dr. Bill Brown, who also reigned as king and queen, and Jan and Ross Wilkins.
Hors d’oeuvres from Castle Pines Golf Club Catering Co. and The Food Guy were served as guests inspected the 300-plus silent auction items up for bid; dinner samplings were courtesy of Gumbo’s Louisiana Style Cafe, Papadeaux Seafood Kitchen, Bayou Bob’s, Dave’s Legendary Barbecue and others.
“This is a shopper’s paradise,” exclaimed Teri Bernstein as she checked out items from deluxe to practical.
A highlight of the evening came when a $200,000 check was presented to Dr. Nicole Erhart, an oncology researcher at the Colorado State University Animal Center; it was from Jack and Pat McDonnell, whose McDonnell Family Foundation has already invested some $500,000 toward a
$3 million Limb Preservation University Chair for the study of bone cancer at CSU.
Costume contest winners, announced by LPF board member Tom Cycyota, were Wade Johnson, Jane Sunday, Drake and Kathryn Boylston, Robin and Mike Becky, Abby and Deana Anthone, and Jim Martin.
Society editor Joanne Davidson can be reached at 303-809-1314 or jdavidson@denverpost.com.
