Beaux Arts Ball Delivers Moulin Rouge-Themed Fun to 1,440 Guests

Annual gala raises $1.4 million for National Jewish Medical and Research Center

DENVER-Ladies in gowns on the arms of men in tuxedos left Denver's snow-packed streets on Jan. 20 to stroll the streets of Paris at the annual Beaux Arts Ball. The event delivered a fantasy Moulin Rouge with its trademark red windmill to 1,440 guests at the Hyatt Regency. The black-tie gala raised $1.4 million to benefit National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

Grand Marshals Kelly and K.C. Gallagher, Kristin and Don Provost, Kristin and Blair Richardson, and Marcia and Dick Robinson greeted guests at the sold-out event. The Provosts, their co-chairs (Carol and Joel Farkas) and table captains raised the most money for the event. Their team raised $415,000, nearly a quarter of the total amount raised. The other co-chairs for the 2007 Beaux Arts Ball were Sunny and Norm Brownstein, Arlene and Barry Hirschfeld, Mary Lou and Don Kortz, Kalleen and Bob Malone, Dick Saunders and Meghan and Evan Zucker.  Bill Hornaday was the Real Estate Chair and Rich Baer served as the Technology Chair.

The live auction followed a sumptuous dinner and generated $89,000. Packages were donated by Kristin and Blair Richardson, Hyde Park, Chopard, United Airlines and Neiman Marcus. Carrie and John Morgridge won a furious bidding war for six tickets to the Kentucky Derby in May with a flight to the races on Kristin and Blair Richardson's private jet and limo service to Churchill Downs. Jack Overstreet took home His and Hers Chopard Elton John
Chronograph timepieces, two first-class United Airlines tickets to Los Angeles, two-night stay at
the world-famous Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and two tickets to attend Sir Elton John's Annual Academy Awards® Viewing Dinner.  Barry Hirschfeld won a mink coat designed and signed by Zandra Rhodes.

Guests were drawn into the Moulin Rouge mood by the Boulder band RUE during the cocktail reception and by costumed actors in Victorian dress.  When guests entered the ballroom, they stepped into the nightclub of Moulin Rouge with over-the-top décor and New-York-based Le Clique dancers performing their version of the famous Can-Can dance. After Steve Arent, Chairman of the National Jewish Board of Directors, and Michael Salem, MD, President and CEO, welcomed guests and thanked them for supporting National Jewish, a video featuring 3-year-old patient Ryan Giordano was shown. The little boy's parents, Shelly and Dave Giordano, accepted applause on behalf of their son and the doctors at National Jewish.

Le Clique's Lady Marmaloude performance kicked off hours of dancing to the New York band Total Soul, and many spontaneous Le Clique performances on the crowded dance floor.

National Jewish is the only medical and research center in the United States devoted entirely to respiratory, allergic and immune system diseases, including asthma, tuberculosis, emphysema, severe allergies, AIDS, cancer, and autoimmune diseases such as lupus. National Jewish has been ranked the country's number one respiratory hospital for the past nine years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.