LOVE and HOPE 2000
My night at the ball LINKS!
Hi all,
I want to give you my view on the Love and Hope Ball 2000
The night started at 6:30 PM at the Fountainbleau Hilton Hotel in Miami
Beach on Saturday, January 22,2000
My friends Sherri Wilkinson, Georgia Lanham, Martha Irving, her friend Rob
and myself walked into the elegant lobby of the hotel and down the huge hall
and up the marble steps lined with tall statuettes and potted plants that
lead to the Grand Ballroom were the Love and Hope Ball, benefiting the
Dietbetis Research Institute (DRI) was being held (this has become known as
the home of Love and Hope as the ball has been held here for many years)
We were greeted by volunteers who welcomed us to the ball and invited us to
have our pictures taken by professionals photographers. We then went and
found our name/table tags among the many names of the well to do Miami
residents. It was then time to enter into the ballroom for cocktails. We
were met by a receiving line of the Love and Hope foundation members among
them Martha Mitshcon one of the L&H 2000 chairmen.
We mingled for awhile and we decided to use the ladies room, while leaving
the ballroom we bumped into Linda and Barry Gibb and Family who were just
arriving
Linda dressed in a black spaghetti strapped evening gown and Barry in a tux,
but no tie
welcomed us with hugs, kisses and handshakes.
After we returned from the ladies room we mingled some more meeting a lot of
interesting people. Soon the main doors opened and we were let into the
Grand ballroom.
The decorations were wonderful, very colorful and illuminating. It gave the
feeling that we were out in the darkness of space with the colorful planets
all around us
We were served caviar and then a soubrette swan to clean our pallets
The evenings festivities started by Sonja Zuckerman, the Life chairmen of
Love and Hope welcoming all and introducing Barry and Linda Gibb who took
the stage and Barry made a very moving speech at times it seemed he was
finding it hard to hold back tears.
Parts of the speech that I can recall were
Thank you all for coming tonight and giving your time and money to help
fight this cause
My entire family is here tonight the only one who isn't here is my oldest
son..Stephen
We have helped to fight this decease for many years and even though we may
not find a cure this week, or this year..maybe we never will. we can not
stop fighting.
I am very fortunate that my family is healthy..my family is decease free..my
children are free of this decease
my children are the most important things in my life. I can not imagine what
it is like to be a parent of a child with this decease, I can not imagine
what is is like to be a child with this decease, I can not imagine being a
person of any age with this decease..but.for the grace of God go I...
Barry then thanked a lot of people personally. After his speech he and
Linda were presented with Flowers and some sort of gift.
A few more speeches were made by other members of the board and an
announcement was made that Doctors from Italy were going to be joining the
Love and Hope family
All this was followed by our main meal of Pork,stuffed tomatoes,birdnest
and of course bread and plenty of wine and champagne to go around, then
desert of various chocolate samples and coffee
During dinner the entertainment started. it was a tribute to dance though
the decade. it started with the Charleston and ended with disco dancing from
the 70's to witch the dancers energetically danced to Night fever, more then
a women and You should be dancing
It was then time for us to find my way to the Gibb table to say our hellos.
We saw Yvonne Gibb, Samantha Gibb, Samantha boyfriend Laz, Linda Gibb,
Barry had already left to take a very tired Ali home to bed) Linda's mother
May Gray, Ashley Gibb and his fiancee Terese, Travis and Michael Gibb,
Nolleen Sterwert and Dick Ashby. We all had a nice chat and shared some
laughs. The surprise of the evening was when Linda Gibb came up to me and
said "I know you, your Georgette" ( I'm still hoping this is a good thing)
I was taken aback to say the least
The evening ended and we left the ballroom with our thank you gift of a
silver plated calculator from SAKS and found memories of the 26th annual
Love and Hope ball and the feeling that even though we didn't donate
millions, we know we helped just by showing our support.
Georgette Hodson 		HOME PAGE
Below are a few of the pictures that I took at the ball

L-R
Yvonne Gibb
Linda Gibb and her mum May Gray
Ashley Gibb Barry and Linda's son) and his fiancee' Therese
 
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