Hundreds Enjoy AAC Annual Benefit Dinner
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Posted: Mar 3, 2009
The American Alpine Club's 108th annual dinner in Colorado drew about 350 people to help raise money for the club's many missions. The audience encompassed the full spectrum of the climbing community, from octogenarians to preteens, and from socialite and Himalayan mountaineer Sandy Hill to climber-comedian and activist for disabled athletes Timmy O'Neill.
A big draw this year was keynote speaker Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, who gave a moving presentation about the origins and development of the Central Asia Institute. The nonprofit he cofounded in the mid-1990s has built more than 80 schools in mountainous regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson spoke eloquently of the transformative power of educating girls in these communities, and he recognized several AAC members for their crucial help in getting the Central Asia Institute off the ground, and for continuing to support its work today.
Before Mortenson's talk, the traditional fund-raising live auction got a lively boost from professional auctioneers and AAC members Steve Schofield and D Byers from New Hampshire. Schofield, a member of the National Auctioneers Hall of Fame, briskly moved hot items like passes and lodging for the Telluride Mountain Film Festival and a signed first edition of Bradford Washburn's Mountain Photography(donated by Paul Fish of Mountain Gear), as well as unique prizes like a hickory Chouinard-Frost piolet used on ice climbs in New York and Alaska, and signed by Yvon Chouinard, Tom Frost, and Jim McCarthy. The top-bid auction item was a unique opportunity to visit and climb with outgoing AAC president Jim Donini at his second home in northern Patagonia. Schofield and Byers closed the auction by raising thousands of dollars from the audience for the AAC's conservation work, including a $1,000 pledge from the auctioneers themselves. In all, the Annual Benefit Dinner grossed about $90,000.
Several of the AAC's top annual awards were handed out, including the Robert and Miriam Underhill Award to Layton Kor; the Angelo Heilprin Citation for service to the AAC to longtime treasurer and board member Charlie Sassara; the Literary Award to author Maria Coffey; the David Brower Conservation Award to Lonnie Thompson and Ellen Mosely-Thompson; and the David A. Sowles Memorial Award to Pemba Gyalje Sherpa for his life-saving efforts on K2 last August.
The annual dinner capped a long weekend that began with an AAC board meeting on Friday, followed by a party at the Buffalo Rose in downtown Golden, featuring a taco bar, three short films, and dancing to the Carnie Bums. The weekend continued with the membership meeting on Saturday, along with a presentation about the Chinese-American Ladies' Climbing Exchange and a book sale at the AAC Library. Climbers took advantage of cold but clear conditions to sneak in some routes at Eldorado Canyon and Table Mountain. Finally, the AAC elected three new board members-Doug Colwell, Roanne Miller, and Eric Simonson-and the new board elected its officers for the coming three years: Steve Swenson, president; Bruce Franks, vice president; Jack Tackle; treasurer; and George Lowe, secretary.
Click here to see photos from the annual dinner.
In the photo: Christiane Leitinger, director of the Pennies for Peace program; Greg Mortenson, executive director of the Central Asia Institute (CAI); Genevieve Chabot, international program manager for CAI; and Doug Chabot, past AAC board member and CAI volunteer. Photo by Dana Richardson.