Next weekend,
the Headdress Ball will boldly carry on its reputation as one of Central Florida’s great parties — and a chance to promote education about HIV prevention.
Marking its 28th year this Saturday, the Headdress Ball boldly carries a reputation as one of Central Florida’s great parties. When you’re so glitzy, though, everyone may not realize your serious purpose.
“I don’t know that everybody that attends realizes they’re supporting our organization and the work we do in the community,” said Lisa Barr, executive director of the Hope & Help Center of Central Florida.
The Orlando nonprofit, which presents the fundraiser, works to stop new HIV infections through testing, education and care for those already infected. Barr is blunt: “We need help getting in front of this disease, which is preventable.”
HIV is the virus that may lead to AIDS if left untreated. Since the start of the epidemic in the 1980s, about 35 million people worldwide have died from the disease that weakens the body’s immune system.
Florida leads the nation in the number of new HIV infections, and Orlando ranks No. 6 among metropolitan areas. Gay and bisexual men are the U.S. group most affected by HIV, but some in the Central Florida gay community dismiss the Headdress Ball as just a see-and-be-seen event for the elite. A general admission ticket costs $250.
Sara Brady, an Orlando publicrelations executive, said people know Hope & Help is putting on the gala. “I don’t know if people who attend take it a step further and embrace their mission with a call to action and know the need is still there,” she said. “The message can be lost in the grandiosity of the party.”
Hope & Help is trying to address that criticism, hoping the more than 700 who attend will embrace a shift in the gala.
“It will be a whole different Headdress,” said Tracy Richardson, vice president of the Hope & Help board. “People were attending because it was known as the party of the year. A lot of people didn’t know Hope & Help. We’re trying to correct that.”
This year’s gala has a concept called Imaginarium, which envisions a world without HIV. Costume-wearing guests at the steampunk-themed affair “will travel into this magical place, where they experience six realms of magic colors — each world has a gatekeeper associated with Hope & Help,” said Eddie Diaz, who is producing the ball for the first time.
“We want to get people to move around and mingle,” Richardson said.
The show’s aim is to tie the ball and nonprofit together very tightly, Barr said. A script by Orlando actor-playwright Michael Wanzie will stress that point.
“While it can be fun to imagine a world without HIV, the fact of the matter is that HIV is still very much among us,” he said. New HIV cases in Florida “exemplify the need to support Hope & Help in their ongoing efforts to educate and eradicate.”
Charity work is “a tough, tough business” of many worthy causes and charities, Barr said. She cites one advantage her group has.
“We’re a local organization, we