For Avenue 360, it was time to get again within the gala recreation with Voices for Hope — its first huge fundraising celebration because the pandemic. This 12 months’s occasion marked a energetic return to in-person gatherings, becoming a member of the ranks of busy, bustling events which have outlined 2024.
The night celebrated the legacy of Omega Home, Texas’s residential hospice for AIDS sufferers.
Co-chaired by Alicia Smith and Brigitte Kalai, Voices for Hope revived an necessary custom of honoring Omega Home’s legacy of compassionate end-of-life care. The night time opened with a cocktail reception emceed by Nice Day Houston host Deborah Duncan, throughout which friends entered raffles for luxurious prizes, together with jewellery from Nini Jewels and Wayne Smith Jewels, a purchasing spree at Tootsie’s, and a staycation at The Put up Oak Lodge with a Porsche weekend rental.
About these voices: the Kinder Excessive Faculty for the Performing and Visible Arts choir’s charming efficiency of “Seasons of Love” set the night’s emotional tone. Blues artist Luke Whitney continued with soulful melodies earlier than America’s Acquired Expertise semi-finalist Christina Wells introduced down the home with dynamic interpretations of “Ain’t No Mountain Excessive Sufficient” and “We Are Household.”
Houston’s social scribe Shelby Hodge gifted Wells her raffle prize, honoring the performer for her roles as a singer, nurse, and mom. The gala additionally celebrated the twenty fifth anniversary of Bering Omega Group Providers, with board member Ken Bohan receiving the Concord of the Coronary heart Award. Omega Home medical director Dr. Gus Krucke, director of dental companies Dr. Mark Nichols, and director Sandy Stacy had been honored with the Symphony of Service Award, with Stacy’s 30 years of service encouraging standing applause.
Noticed had been Lance Smith, Bashar Kalai, Hallie Vanderhider and Bobby Dees, Leisa Holland Nelson, Farida Abjani, Shafik Rifaat, Maria and Omar Moncada Alaoui, Jody Merritt, Christine Johnson, Michele Until, Anna Reger, Mandy Kao, Mark Folkes and Christopher Johnston, Brandon Weinbrenner and Mitchell Greco, Fady Armanious, and Tony Bradfield.
