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

Jacob Hilton a.k.a. Travid Halton

THERE IS A long recorded history of musicians applying their melodic and lyrical gifts to explore the darker corners of human existence and navigate a pathway toward healing and redemption. You have the Blues and Spirituals, of course, which offer transcendence amid tragedy in all of its guises. And then there’s Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Frank Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade, three wildly divergent examples of the album as a cathartic, psychological, conceptual work meant to be experienced in a single sitting, much like one sits still to read a short story or a novel.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment

Houston’s own Wayne Wilson stars in and helped create Cirque du Soleil’s new ’Songblazers’ show.

WHEN CIRQUE DU Soleil’s newest show, the country-music-inspired Songblazers, hits Houston Aug. 1 — only the second city, after Nashville, to get it — a few folks in the audience will recognize a familiar face on the stage.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment