Fertitta family hosts Legacy Community Health Services’ rescheduled cocktail party
When Tropical Storm Imelda caused widespread flooding on Sept. 19, Fady Armanious remained optimistic — at first.
As creative director of Tootsies, a womenswear store, and the honoree of Legacy Community Health Services’ 17th annual cocktail party, he diligently updated his social media. He posted, “The party is still on!” and “See everyone tonight!” to his Facebook and Instragram stories throughout the day.
Then photos of Houstonarea residents abandoning their cars in high water started to trickle in. By early afternoon, Imelda had become the fifth-wettest tropical cyclone on record in the U.S., dumping 43.5 inches of rain in the span of hours.
The party was off.
Later, Dec. 12 was chosen as the rescheduled date. But that presented its own set of challenges. At least two other competing soirees were on the books that night, and legendary tenor Andrea Bocelli was set to perform at the Toyota Center.
Again, Armanious was determined to stay positive. And this time it worked.
Nearly 500 supporters, clients, friends and family attended last week’s glittering bash at the Fertitta family home. That’s an astonishing 100 additional guests than organizers had expected for the original date.
The super-sized crowd — and a très chic one, at that — included hosts Paige Fertitta, Sheridan Williams, Elizabeth Petersen, Melissa Mithoff, Hallie Vanderhider, Shannon Hall and Marcus Sloan, Angel Rios and Richard Flowers. In fact, it was Flowers, the 2018 honoree, who threw Armanious’ name into the ring.
During his emotional acceptance speech, Armanious shared that he and his partner, Bill Baldwin, had toured Legacy Community Health’s Montrose and Southwest clinics, which identify unmet needs and gaps in healthrelated services, in the months leading up to the big shindig. It was decided that the former location’s second-floor lobby would be named in Armanious’ honor.
As a special treat, boldfaced Houstonians such as Ceron, Becca Cason Thrash, Ellie Francisco, Lynn Wyatt and more made cameos in a surprise video that streamed over the backyard pool. Wyatt even recited a poem she’d written for the occasion.
In total, the evening raised more than $390,000 for Legacy’s Little Readers program presented by H-E-B. The organization has given away more than 95,000 books to pediatric patients during “wellchild” checkups to date.
Attendees celebrated in grand style, with revelers lingering far past the 9 p.m. end time. Guests queued up for photos with Armanious — who’d changed from his crimson Alexander McQueen suit into an emerald Andrew Gn snake embellished second look — as he posed with proclamations from City Hall declaring Dec. 12 as Fady Armanious Day in Houston.
Behold the silver lining of a rescheduled date: extra time to coordinate a wardrobe change and in lieu of rain, the full “cold moon.”