Power of Love Gala returns to its time and place
The annual Keep Memory Alive Power of Love Gala is right back where it belongs this week after battling through pandemic challenges in recent years. The fundraising event returns to its traditional home venue, MGM Grand Garden Arena, on Saturday, and the always star-studded entertainment lineup might be bigger than ever as Sammy Hagar, Paula Abdul, Alice Cooper, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Nikki Glaser, Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, John Mayer, Michael Mcdonald, Sam Moore of Sam & Dave, and Rick Springfield are all scheduled to appear.
The gala, benefiting Keep Memory Alive and the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, will honor John Paul Dejoria, co-founder of Paul Mitchell and Patron tequila, with its Community Leadership Award, and pay tribute to the late David Humm, a Las Vegas native and former NFL player. Maria Shriver, founder of the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement — which joined the Cleveland Clinic last year — will also be in attendance.
Any remaining tickets and tables for Power of Love can be found at keepmemoryalive.org.
The 26th annual event is a big one for the organization because it hasn’t been held since October 2021. That gala moved to Resorts World Las Vegas for a few reasons: It was honoring Genting Group CEO KT Lim, and the MGM space wasn’t available.
“It was good for us because MGM was busy and we wanted to be in an exciting new property, but our home has been MGM and now we’re going back,” said Keep Memory Alive co-founder and vice chair Larry Ruvo. “If you look at our history, we started this event at Spago, moved to Bellagio and other hotels and then the MGM Garden, and we’ve (hosted) at our beautiful Frank Gehry-(designed) building as well.”
Considered one of the marquee local fundraising events every year, Power of Love generates essential funding for the Ruvo Center in its mission to provide quality care, resources and no-cost support and education services to patients and their caregivers fighting brain diseasessuch as like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.
In addition to lots of music and entertainment, the gala honors community standouts every year, raises additional money with silent and live auctions, and offers an incredible dining experience courtesy of top chefs — this year, Wolfgang Puck and Tal Ronnen.
“I’d like to take total credit (for the entertainment lineup) but the roulette wheel has two zeros, and that’s how much I’m going to take,” Ruvo joked. “We reached out to two friends in Sammy Hagar and (musical director) Greg Phillinganes and they put this together for us. There’s something for everybody in this show.”
Ruvo also noted that Humm is considered “the original Las Vegas Raider,” a Bishop Gorman High School graduate who played for the Raiders and other teams from 1975 through 1984. Humm died at the age of 65 from complications of MS.
The gala is usually held around Valentine’s Day and the organization is happy to bring it back at that time of year for the first time in three years. But the most important thing is that it’s happening at all; the Ruvo Center is an unsustainable operation without philanthropy, Ruvo said.
“It’s no secret. Last year, 2022, we saw some 34,000 patients, and the majority of those people are on Medicare or Medicaid. We lost money on every one of those individuals, so it was a brutal year without all of our fundraising events,” he said. “Las Vegas can be proud to have the Cleveland Clinic, but at some point we all have to realize that if we’re all going to rely on Medicare and Medicaid as we get older, we just can’t survive with the small amount of money we get from reimbursements.
“Without Power of Love, we lose a lot of money, and we need those fundraising efforts from the people of Las Vegas and the people that use the center to support us, to buy a ticket, to make a donation, anything they can do.”