Million-Dollar Mountainside Party Takes Memorial Hermann to New Heights

Daniel Ortiz
Million-Dollar Mountainside Party Takes Memorial Hermann to New Heights

Matthew and Audrey White, Julie Longoria Chen and Stephen Chen

DOZENS OF HOUSTON do-gooders chilling in Colorado this summer gathered for a mountain-chic soiree in support of Memorial Hermann.


A two-day celebration in Aspen, chaired by Melissa Juneau, Leticia Trauber and Hallie Vanderhider, culminated in the announcement of a substantial $5 million gift to the hospital system’s Life Flight — the nation’s first and busiest air-ambulance program.

The donation, made by the John M. O’Quinn Foundation, marks the launch of a campaign to purchase new helicopters for Life Flight, which supports the highest-volume Level I trauma center in America. Previous donations by party attendees Charlie Lusk, Jim Smith and Laurie Krohn, along with the John S. Dunn Foundation, helped Life Flight acquire its current fleet. Partygoers raised their glasses, filled with potent “Red Duke” cocktails homaging Life Flight’s creator, to everyone who has contributed to the groundbreaking — and high-flying — program.

Amalia Stanton, Laurie Krohn, Melissa Juneau, Laura Escalona

Will and Elizabeth Galtney

Anne Neeson, Melissa Juneau and Leticia Trauber

Amanda and Terry Boffone

Tony Bradfield, Amy Pierce

Felicia and Rafael Stone, Leticia Trauber, Gretchen Sheirr

Roslyn Bazzelle Mitchell and Derrick Mitchell

Kathy and Charlie Lusk

Mike Lowenberg, Dr. David and Tonya Callender, Bess and Rob Wilson

Nina and Edd Hendee

Michelle Koskie, Laurie Krohn, Susan Plank

Bess Wilson, Dr. Michelle McNutt, Lisa and Jerry Simon

Parties

Matthew Dirst (photo by Jacob Power)

FOR FANS OF early music — an often scholarly lot who aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves — bad-boy Baroque-era painter Caravaggio certainly nailed something in his dramatic 1595 painting, “The Musicians.” (Simon Schama talks about this in his TV series The Power of Art.) One look at his masterpiece, and you feel as if you’ve stumbled upon and surprised a roomful of dewy-eyed musicians, their youthful faces swollen with melancholy, with the lutist looking like he’s about ready to burst into tears before he’s even tuned his instrument. So no, you certainly don’t need a Ph.D. to enjoy and be moved by the music of Handel, G.P. Telemann, or J.S. Bach, but a little bit of scholarship never hurt anyone. Knowing the history of this music may even deepen your appreciation of it.

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On Saturday, Jan. 6, artist-owned Archway gallery greets the new year with Inward Journey, an exhibition of unapologetically beautiful abstract paintings by Houston painter Mohammad Ali Bhatti.

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