16 Dec CHANGING THE WORLD ONE EVENT AT A TIME
As we approach the end of the last year of the first decade in the 2000s, our team at Zynger Event is taking a look back at a year of milestones.
We turned 10, our team grew by leaps and bounds, we won our very first Special Events Gala Award for Best Non profit Event and we produced some very unique events that changed lives. It sounds so serious, doesn’t it? But trust us, our clients, and our team, had fun changing the world.
This year found us sourcing leg warmers and going back through our disco tapes for The LGBT Community Center of the Desert – fundraiser, Center Stage, with an eighties theme. For the Space Center Houston’s Galaxy Gala, we found body suits printed with groovy lunar pattern and an entertainer with laser like focus. And we worked with endangered species (which included some wild musical acts) at the Steve Irwin Gala Dinner Los Angeles. These are just a few of the memories we share today with you.
It was a year of rich experiences that yielded more than any investment we know. As we close our books, we feel wealthy in so many ways, and the world is a much better place for these charities and the work they do. Please help us support them as we go into a new decade.
PUTTING THE HUMANITY IN “SUPER HUMAN”
He’s not a Marvel super hero, but Afam Onyema is indeed super human. Just ask any of the many people he has helped as founder of the GEANCO Foundation.
The Chicago-born Stanford Law School graduate (who also has a degree from Harvard University) passed up the life of an attorney to run the GEANCO Foundation, a philanthropic medical organization he co-founded with his father. GEANCO has been serving impoverished communities’ medical needs in Nigeria since 2005. One cool fact: Oprah Winfrey is a donor.
At every opportunity Onyema used education to spread the word and the GEANCO Foundation Fundraising Gala was no different. We produced an event that included a silent auction and a conversation about the plight of young women in Nigeria between activists and actors Charlize Theron and David Oyelowo led by Onyema.
Of the evening, Onyema told us, “I was humbled by the praise both David and Charlize gave me and my family. It was touching and inspiring to hear these two superstar actors publicly highlight and honor the hard, unglamorous work that goes on off camera and away from the red carpet to save and transform lives in Africa.”
Onyema was especially touched when Oyelowo asked everyone to give him a hug because what he does is heroic and superhuman. And getting a big hug from Theron didn’t hurt!
A HOT TIME IN THE DESERT
Do clothes really make a difference in the world? They do when putting on a red dress can bring in thousands of dollars in aid to the LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert.
Red Dress/Dress Red, is a night of expression and celebration of the LGBTQ community and acts as a fundraiser for LGBTQ youth and people living with HIV/AIDS. The event raises more than $100,000 for The LGBT Community Center of the Desert’s programs serving LGBTQ people across Coachella Valley. Equally important is creating the space for creative, individual expression and community building.
Of this year’s event, Mike Thompson, CEO of the organization recalls, “When you’re nervously hosting an outside dance party for 1,250 people and it’s known as the hottest party of the Palm Springs Season…and the night turns out to be a cold one, you trust Ryan to reimagine the layout of the entire event as if it were part of the original plan. He works magic! Oh yeah, and, in spite of the cold weather, it truly was the hottest party of the season.”
LEG WARMERS AND DISCO
So, you think fund-raising events are all about honorees and long speeches. Think again! We always try to add a unique element to the events we produce, but this event really put the FUN in fund-raising with an eighties theme event.
The LGBTQ Community Center of the Desert (The Center) celebrated its exceptional growth this year by going back to the eighties for a bodacious event enjoyed by more than 700 guests at the Riviera Palm Springs.
This year we worked with the organizers for a new approach to the traditional fundraising event. They wanted to depart from having an emcee for the evening so we put more emphasis on the live auction and The Center itself.
“We wanted to put The Center on stage this year to highlight its program, teams and the impact it is making in the desert communities,” explains the organization’s CEO, Mike Thompson. “It’s important for our donors, as investors in our work, to see the return on their support. That return comes in the lives influenced by our work, 80,000 times over.”
Which is truly what it’s all about.
TO THE GALAXY AND BEYOND!
Our team traveled to Houston to celebrate an out-of-this-world event. The event was the third biennial Galaxy Gala hosted by Space Center Houston at Bayou Place in downtown Houston. The theme of “Exploration Fuels Innovation” was a perfect chance for us to fuel up on some space-age décor and entertainment.
Close to 400 guests enjoyed the chance to see and interact with a laser light performance that accomplished the goals of co-chairs Peggy Kostial with Shanell and Walker Moody to shed light on the center’s work to further the next generation of explorers, engineers and scientists.
Highlights of the evening included celebrating and honoring longtime Space Center Houston board member and supporter Fred Griffin and the announcement of an exciting new exhibit coming to Space Center Houston — Space X’s twice flown Falcon 9 first stage booster.
Coming to Space Center Houston in summer 2019, the Falcon 9 is the first and only refurbished booster used for a NASA mission. The event raised nearly $700,000 to support the center’s Innovation Gateway and other STEM education programs.
CELEBRATING WILDLIFE IN LOS ANGELES
And last, but not least in our review of some of our favorite events of 2019 is the Fifth Annual Steve Irwin Gala Dinner, In His Footsteps. Held at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, the event was a fundraiser for Wildlife Warriors honoring the work of Irwin and to raise much-needed funds to continue Irwin’s important conservation work worldwide.
Wildlife Warriors, originally called the Steve Irwin Conservation Foundation, is a conservationist organization that was established in 2002 by Steve Irwin and his wife, Terri Irwin, to involve and educate others in the protection of injured, threatened or endangered wildlife.
From the plains of Africa to the jungles of Sumatra and the outback of Australia, the foundation provides support to injured and endangered wildlife, their homes, and neighboring communities.
This year, friends and family gathered to celebrate the passion that inspired Irwin and so many others to follow in his footsteps of conservation work. And, as we discovered, the guests also shared a passion for SLS Chef Jose Andres and for decadent cuisine. The black-tie-and-khaki event included wildlife and wild entertainment from Justice Crew.
It was quite a year, quite a decade! We can’t wait to see what 2020 brings!
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