Mia Washington knows what makes a party

Serving as master of ceremonies for the evening, Austin's most social city council member, Mike Martinez, convincingly impersonated an early rapper.

Draped in vintage fashion, youngish guests paid tribute to Pat Benatar, Madonna and Cyndi Lauper, among other 1980s pop sensations, hoping to win prizes for best costume and best dancing.

Filling the Parish nightclub on East Sixth Street, they writhed well into the evening.

The mad party scientist behind this controlled mayhem last year was a beaming, still-young woman whose 20-year-old daughter can only imagine the 1980s.

In fact, Buffalo, N.Y.-born Mia Washington, 44, works for one of Austin's most serious charities. The Austin Children's Shelter, beneficiary of the New Wave Ball, provides protection and care for children and young adults through emergency shelter care.

"We're the place where the healing begins," Washington likes to say. This director of special events knows, however, that a social affair to raise money for a critical nonprofit should not hit their guests over the head with the cause.

She recommends a well-crafted video, upbeat, to tell the charity's story. A live speech is optional. Neither should exceed three minutes. "People don't want to hear talking," she says. "If they came to your event, they want to support you. They also want to have a good time."

The oldest of five seems born to lighten the collective mood.

"I was fun, loud and playful," she remembers of life with father Walter Louis Sims, who owned restaurants, and mother Sharon Ann Sims, a bookkeeper, both from Buffalo but now residents of Portland, Ore. "How I am now is how I was as a kid."

Washington changed schools several times, finishing her secondary education at suburban Pomona High School in Arvada, Colo. College was hit or miss, but she's still determined to finish her communications degree from St. Edward's University.

She studied music, dance and art, and being the eldest, she learned to be responsible for others. Perhaps because her parents were self-made business people, she learned to shine while applying for her first job in retail.

"I wanted to be at the mall. I wanted to buy clothes and see my friends," she says. "My father coached me for job interviews. ‘Shake their hands and say ‘"When do I start?"' When the interview was done, I yelled it — ‘WHEN DO I START?' By the time I got home, they hired me."

Washington later did office work and eventually landed a job with the Urban League in Portland, Ore.

"That's where I fell in love with nonprofits," she says. "I loved what I did and that what I did directly affected somebody. Somebody ate because of what I did. Somebody got better because of what I did."

She followed leader Herman Lessard to Austin when he became the CEO of the regional chapter.

"I knew nothing of Texas," she confesses. "New Yorkers have a poor perception of Texas." By now she was a single mother. Azia Washington, 20, studies dance at Tyler Junior College.

"She's most phenomenal thing I've ever produced," Mia Washington says with a laugh. (She intersperses any conversation with generous laughter.)

A corporate gig in marketing and event planning ended in an untimely layoff, but Washington landed on her feet with the United Way, then St. Ed's. She's been with the children's shelter for six years. Among her duties are planning the big annual events. Besides the New Wave Ball (Feb. 24 at Speakeasy nightclub), there's Fashion for Compassion (March 23), a golf tournament (September) and the grown-up gala (Nov. 3).

Meanwhile, she's the channel for third-party fundraisers — from lemonade stands to bike races — that benefit the shelter. She ensures that the gatherings are legitimate and ethical, fitting with the children's shelter brand.

"It's a very valuable revenue stream," Washington says of these grass-roots affairs.

She dreamed up the New Wave Ball as a way to recruit new leaders.

"I started looking at events like the White Party (for LifeWorks) and others that were geared to a young demographic," she says. "There's a lot of young wealth here."