Brass Ring Luncheon & Fashion Show
What may well be Denver’s longest-running fashion gala, the Brass Ring Luncheon & Fashion Show, marked its 40th year by welcoming a record 775 guests and raising $400,000 for The Guild of the Children’s Diabetes Foundation.
The Diabetes Foundation, headed by Dana Davis, supports the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes by raising money for the center’s groundbreaking research, education and clinical services.
Dana’s parents, Barbara and the late Marvin Davis, started the Barbara Davis Center in 1977 after Dana was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. It is headquartered on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
The Spring Brass Ring, as this year’s edition was nicknamed, was chaired by Lori Finch and held at the Hilton Denver City Center.
Finch is a Colorado native who lives in Foxfield with her husband, Larry. The Finch family has been involved in the diabetes community since 2005 when their daughter, Christina, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
Lori Finch’s commitment to the cause includes her current service as treasurer of the Guild and putting in four years as chair of its Charlotte Tucker Scholarship committee. She also helped launch Camp DX, a diabetes day camp sponsored by the American Diabetes Association.
The fashion show featured special occasion clothing from Nicole Bakti by Aida and the Mariel boutique in Cherry Creek North. Nicole Bakti designer Aida Gharakhani and boutique owner Denise Snyder both were in attendance.
Gharakhani, it was noted, had been hospitalized in the days leading up to the show but made the trip to Denver as a favor to Snyder, her longtime friend.
“If it wasn’t for Denise I wouldn’t be here,” Gharakhani said.
The words were no sooner out of her mouth than a cake with icing that looked exactly like the fabric on one of Gharakhani’s gowns was wheeled out on stage. It was the designer’s birthday, and Snyder enlisted her sister, Kathleen Davia, the owner of Gateaux, to bake a commemorative cake.
The day “was a smashing success,” noted Susie Hummell, program manager for the sponsoring Children’s Diabetes Foundation. “We set a new attendance record and met our fundraising goal. But most important, we continued to educate our community about what the Barbara Davis Center is doing to prevent — and ultimately find a cure for — diabetes.”
Before sitting down to lunch in a ballroom that Design Works had transformed into a garden-like setting, guests checked out the silent auction offerings and the 12 tables filled with vintage treasures from another of the guild’s fundraising efforts, Jewels for Hope.
“We were green before it was fashionable,” said former Lone Tree Mayor Susan Squyer, who has been involved with Jewels of Hope since its start in 2003. “We recycle necklaces, bracelets, pins and earrings that are donated to us, and craft ‘new’ items by using stones or beads from pieces that are either broken or outdated.”
Jack Elway, co-founder of the luxury accessory brand Mint Tradition, was there to support his friend, Josh Schmitz, who produced the fashion show with members of his Unlife Creative Agency.
Diane Smethills, one of those at Angel Sponsor Margot Gilbert Frank’s rampside table, was happy that her husband, Harold, and his Sterling Ranch Development Co. was joining her in supporting the Barbara Davis Center by inviting his friends — a group that included Jeff Coors, Scott Bemis and Chris Dorsey — to join him and his son, Brock, at their Angel Sponsor table.
The Smethills’ son, Ross, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 3.
Guests at the fundraiser also included Angel Sponsor Lisa Corley; such former Brass Ring chairs as Jamie Angelich, Tangy Buchanan, Helen Hanks, Gail Johnson, Shelley Lucas, Cheri Meagher, Lyn Schaffer and Adrienne Fitzgibbons. Nancy Cowee, Linda Broughton and Judy Mcneil, all past presidents of the guild also attended, as did Patricia Barela Rivera; Dianne Eddolls; April Jones; Pat Cortez; guild president Barb Oberfeld and CBS4 meteorologist Dave Aguilera.
Aguilera said he agreed to serve as the event’s master of ceremonies as a tribute to the memory of his father, whose death at 55 was caused by diabetes-related kidney disease. “If we could find a cure for diabetes, man, oh man, would that be wonderful.”