Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2009 > April > 04
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Adoption Coaliton of Texas Gala at the Austin Club
The cause is peerless. The institution demonstrably effective. The supporting evidence is moving in the extreme.
Lara Wendler, Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez
Yet the Adoption Coalition of Texas Gala at the Austin Club seemed a bit out of joint. At 8 p.m., the guests moved from drinks in the foyer area of the main upstairs room to the dinner tables. Yet dinner — even salad, or water — was yet to come. By 9 p.m. some were heading for the door.
Jason Reese, Stacey Reese
Presentations, anecdotes, testimonials, a video took up the next hour as the guests appeared both transfixed by the message, but restless with the staging. (At first, I lingered in the foyer with about one fourth of the guests, then moved around the dining area to take photos and ask questions.)
Catie Beck, Clinton Butler
Coalition director Tracy Eilers runs a tight ship, and nothing would interrupt the presentation, not even an errant video. What she might not have realized is that each part of the program was rhetorically effective on its own. Repetition can turn into overkill.
Bella Guzman, Steve Guzman
State Sen. Steve Ogden was thanked many times for his honorary chairmanship. Ogden admitted that, as a senator, his speech would naturally exceed 10 minutes, and nobody would argue with his smooth, funny, practiced delivery. He spoke touchingly about his adopted son, Chaz, and his wife, Beverly, whom he volunteers to solve the most difficult problems.
(Pregnant with their second!) Crystal Cotti, State Rep. Mark Strama
Yet the emotional highlight of the evening was the appearance by Alice Jones, a Vietnamese American child who spent 16 years in foster homes, but was not adopted, even by her last foster parents. She met Eilers and told her that story, and, at age 36, the computer programmer from Houston was adopted by Kate Held, originally from the Carolinas.
Judge Andy Hathcock, State Rep. Valinda Bolton
Jones and Held told stories you couldn’t imagine even in novels. They were the evening and the message: “There’s never a time in life when you don’t need a family.” Bless them both.
Alice Jones, Kate Held
KVUE and Fox 8 were recognized for running segments on children available for adoption. Eilers, as well as the gala chairwomen, were presented with bouquets. The crowd included several prominent politicians (I met for the first time Mike Martinez’s new bride, Lara Wendler. Mozel to both of them.)
State Sen. Steve Ogden, Beverly Ogden
A quick word about the private Austin Club as a gala venue. It’s tight for a crowd this size. The grandness of the bar/dining area suits some purposes, not others. I, of course, mourn the building’s passing as a theater (Miller Opera House), but you know, it kind of works for events like this. I’d like to see more there.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Charity, Faith & Education, Out
Michael Huff Charity Casino at Gibson Guitar Showroom
The fans arrived early. The NFL players a bit later. The Michael Huff Charity Casino at the Gibson Guitar Showroom dovetailed neatly with Texas Relays-related festivities, which means it was just one of many social commitments hosts and guests made on Friday.
Kathy J, Tee Lynee, Comfort Agara, Brandy Broussard, Raquel Raquel
Still, guests were shy about playing the games of chance and skill until former Longhorns Michael Huff and Derrick Johnson sidled up to the tables.
Nicole Durand, Vince Galloway
Both men — Huff alert and fastidious, Johnson tall and quiet — drew the similarly dressed women (associated models travel in flocks to certain parties) and the hip-hop attired young men to the play.
Jennifer Mueller, Gregg Mueller
The music, however, early in the evening was bright jazz. People steered toward hearty food from Renee’s Catering. Others gravitated to the sports photos, signed jerseys and musical instruments that dominated the silent auction.
Karen Viotto, Dan Viotto (austin.com)
I wavered for a bit, wondering if my youngest brother remembered how he idolized Early Campbell in the 1970s. A framed and signed jersey beckoned. And his 50th birthday is not that far off.
Michael Huff, Marques Haynes, DJ Warrior
The NFL players didn’t seem too gregarious early in the evening. Polite when addressed, they tended to seek the margins of the room, as if they’d had their fill of the spotlight.
Dondra Wilson, Derrick Johnson, Cissy Stasio
The early closing of Highland Mall and some Sixth Street clubs during the Relays weekend popped up in several conversations. Everyone seemed baffled. The unwelcoming act just didn’t jibe with the Austin ethos.
Mike Hissey, Rhonda Hissey, Brian Northridge
The revelers didn’t let it dampen their spirits. Non-sports celebrities and ordinary ticket-purchasers mingled easily with the NFL elite, who could have benefited from an ID system. People don’t really look like they do on TV or from Row 73.
James Carranco, Chris Zabaneh
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Charity, Faith & Education, Out, Sports
Media Relations Group 2: All About MEdia for Neighborhood Longhorns
At the McCombs School of Business, students in Ben Bentzin’s marketing class spend a good chunk of the semester helping out local businesses with recently acquired skills. Banking off that premise, I geared my quickie media-relations workshop for those particular semester-long projects during two of Bentzin’s classes on Thursday.
I’m now tracking several students marketing/media relations groups. It will take a while to enter the reports into the system, but by the end of the weekend, they should be launched. I promise to follow them for at least a month.
As usual, each group of six or more students divided up the tasks of pitching me live — via Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, texting, imaging, phone and face-to-face — and I responded honestly as a working journalist.
Student Group: All About MEdia
Austin Client: Neighborhood Longhorns.
The Pitch: This group chose a nonprofit client that uses the charisma of UT sports to promote achievement in elementary and middle schools. “Are you a sports fan?” the clever marketers asked. Of course, had they been reading me regularly, they’d know the answer, but a good opener. Then they made an enticing pitch via various media: Interview Mack Brown, Colt McCoy and Quan Cosby during a “Lunch with the Coach” session.
Although I’d just met Cosby for the first time at the Beyond the Lights Celebrity Golf Classic, the chance to chat with Brown and McCoy is rare for a reporter who does not work for the newspaper’s sports department. And they are big names. I jumped at it. Only trouble — the lunch was the previous week, so the pitch missed its target. I hadn’t emphasized enough in the prep time that the subjects had to be entirely factual.
Hey listen, keep trying, guys. Good cause. Good celebrity gets. If you can get them.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Charity, Faith & Education
To escape the coming heat, escape Austin 4
For Parts 1, 2 & 3, see posts below …
Still others will aim out to sea during summertime.
Composer Dan Welcher will sail Penobscot Bay in Maine. Dr. Russell D. Briggs and Julie Ermis Briggs will cool off near the glaciers — while they last — on an Alaskan cruise. Architect Juan Miró and his business manager/wife Rosa Rivera will take in Japan first, then cruise the Mediterranean (Monaco, Florence, Rome, Naples and Tunis) to celebrate Miró’s parent’s 50th anniversary.
Europe remains a traditional lure. Business strategic planner Debbie Johnson will wander around Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France in June. “We’re picking up a new car, visiting some friends, hiking in the Cinque Terra, etc,” Johnson says. “Should be a lot nicer weather over there about then!”
Southwestern University professor Rick Roemer will spend the summer in Bulgaria, Austria, Greece and Turkey, grappling with theater and playing tournament tennis. Ballet Austin’s Stephen Mills and partner Brent Hasty will dip into Venice for the Biennale art festival in June, and then on to the Montepellier Dance Festival in France. (Believe me, Venice can turn downright arctic in the summer. Depends on the direction of the wind.)
Actress Sandy Walper and her husband John will tour Ireland and Scotland. She concludes: “I, for one, will probably come home with some absolutely incoherent attempt at a Celtic/Texas/Gaelic accent.”
Will all these places stay cool? Well, one can pretty much lay money on it: Not as hot as Texas.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Travel
