To borrow a metaphor from sports, Dell Children’s could run a tutorial on how to stage a gala. Let’s start with the decor. The hospital’s Armando Zambrano, lighting designer Ilios and projections designer Houndstooth Studio miraculously transformed a vast ballroom at the Austin Convention Center into an intimate, 21st-century theater with four corner stages and a central arena-like performance well seamlessly plastered with projected images and words.
(My poor snapshot doesn’t do it justice.)
These are production values you’d expect from the Oscars. Co-chairs Mary Miles and Owen Temple added a musical touch by introducing four Austin country acts who played on the corner stages while their images were expertly projected everywhere. Most if not all of the musicians were parents whose children had been treated at the growing medical center.
Flowers by David Kurio made another classy, luxurious statement, as did the precise, attentive dinner service.
Armando Zambrano and Bobbi Topfer
Zambrano reports that the affair grossed $1.36 million, a jump of $250,000 over 2012. A lot of that came during the astonishing if overly long live auction. Here, vacation packages were going for $20,000 or $30,000. A glossy, black Labrador retriever puppy went for $16,000 to the chagrin of animal welfare activists and the happy shock of everyone else.
Maneesh Amancharla and Sidhya Jayakumar
Dancing, casino gaming and after partying went on long after I left, but what will never leave my memory are the testimonials, on video and live from the stage, of parents who went through catastrophic medical crises with the kids. Hearing Jennifer and Blake Sallé talk about Skylar or Katherine and Pat Jones go over the months they tended Patton was beyond moving.
What struck me about both of the dads was their demeanor. Obviously confident and accomplished in their daily lives, they were left somewhat vulnerable by the sudden onset of medical calamity. Following their usual practices, they called around the country to gain the opinions of the top experts. Who, in turn, confirmed that they were in good hands at Dell Children’s no matter the crisis.
Quite a testimonial for a hospital that’s a mere few years old.
Correction: An earlier version of this post credited the wrong company for the designs.