4th Annual HRC Arizona Dinner Gala

The 4th Annual HRC Arizona Dinner Gala was held on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at the west building of the Phoenix Convention Center. It is an awesome building. "Be the Change" was the theme for this year's event. This is the first time ever I have been at one of these events. I was a volunteer.

Although a group of us had started volunteering and participating in D&I type events since about April 2006, around August of 2007 the company I work for began to get together to officially form a Diversity Council at our location. Though there already were various diversity councils for our company(GLBT, Hispanic, Asian, etc.), they are all based in MN, they have their own funding, and they are all ran separately. Minneapolis, MN is the company's main headquarters so they have members from all parts of the company. Our diversity council differs in that we are all inclusive, meaning we aren't separated into Hispanic, Asian, GLBT, and so on. We also have no funds to work with, although I'm sure we could get some funds for specific events if enough validation is presented. By looking at what the other councils have previously done and what they will be doing we can gear up for events we can do.

There are few members now and have had a couple of meetings with as many attending as possible as schedules permit. Hopefully as we get more participation and notoriety we can get the stores and DC to participate and get involved.

Our first event was set up by MN through the Hispanic Council where through video conference different members shared their stories. This month to celebrate Black History Month, Michael has worked on putting together and sending out an informational that should come out this week.

So, he found information on volunteers needed for the HRC event and was able to have a communication sent out for volunteers. No one but him and our two leads had signed up. I didn't sing up initially because a Gala just sounded too fancy for me, and what would I wear?! So I signed up the next day. Aaron also signed up.

Aaron and I got there a few minutes past 2pm. There were also other volunteers present. We were assigned different tasks throughout the evening. Our first task was to place the program on all the chairs. We finished that pretty quickly. After that the running around began. It was sort of like an episode of The Apprentice. There were obviously different "project managers" for the different areas like the silent auction room, the dinner room, registration, etc., and they weren't that greatly organized. Each one knew what the end results should be, but there was not one set of tasks set, just everyone doing one thing or another to get everything done. We got to help with putting up art to be auctioned and the various things associated with that, we put up easels with signage, we helped as greeters when guests were arriving, and helped at the end of the auction to input the information from the auction sheets. Aaron at the end also helped with passing out the information the the auction winners. Aaron and I were there until 10pm. I felt like I was given tasks that no one wanted to do for either lack of time or other. I was fine with it since I was just volunteering. Plus I got to see all these great art pieces I wouldn't had had a chance to.

Volunteers, unless they paid for the dinner($250), were only to have refreshments, which were at a back room set for volunteers, which only had water. There were prepared lunch boxes earlier in the day but those were clearly for the crew with HRC. There were quite a few left over lunch boxes and those were gobbled by the ASU volunteers. It was fine by me as I was there for the volunteering.

Once the dinner had started we were allowed to sit on a table that wasn't filled with guests. There were like 5 tables that remained empty. Here came my surprise. We were served dinner too. So we enjoyed wine and dinner that consisted of a salad, one main dinner course, and dessert.

The welcome and introduction was done by dinner co-chairs Brian Stranghoner and Kathy Young. Political introductions were done by Mayor Phil Gordon, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and Congressman Raul Grijalva. HRC President, Joe Solmonese, presented the State of The Nation Keynote Address. All this was done while we enjoyed wine, bread, and salad. Dinner was served after the keynote address. While this was going on, we were called to the help with the silent auction sheets and enter them into the computer system for sale to the highest bidder. I then returned to enjoy dinner and entertainment by comedian/actor Alec Mapa. The Individual Equality Award was given to Governor Janet Napolitano, who was unable to attend but sent a video accepting her award. Wells Fargo was given the corporate Equality Award. Peter Paige, actor/producer, provided and amazing speech on his involvement with HRC. One of the most touching speeches was given by Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva. Eric was the first American wounded in the war in Iraq. The closing Remarks were given by Brian and Kathy.

Overall this was a great event. As you read I got to participate in the setup of the event as well as enjoy the event as well. It is amazing to be among people who have a shared common goal to bring Equality to the GLBT community.

During the time I spent as a greeter I got to say hello to almost every person that attended the event. I even said hi to Peter. Even better though. When I went to help with the silent auction sheets, right before dinner, Peter walked by and I couldn't help myself and I waived at him all giddy and fan like. The best part though gave me a huge smile and waived back. Oh wish I would have ran up to him to take a picture with him.

If you want to find out more about the Human Rights Campaign follow this link to their website!