What You Missed: Twerking, the Limbo and Crooning at the 2013 Celebrity Waiter Luncheon

LeeAnne Locken and Candy Evans give Ron Corning a twerking for charity
photo Allyson Aynesworth

Celebrity Waiter Luncheon 2013
as recalled by Candace Evans of Candy's Dirt

Jamie Singer & Lindsay Jacaman
photo Shana Anderson

It’s Monday, and I am still trying to recuperate from this year’s Celebrity Waiter Luncheon benefiting, as it always does, Family Gateway. Family Gateway is a wonderful local charity that breaks the generational cycle of homelessness by providing individualized care to homeless families with children, then restoring the dignity, stability and self-sufficiency of the family unit.

Did you know that families with children are the fastest-growing homeless group in our city? Celebrity Waiter is one of many events throughout the year that raises money for Family Gateway, now in its 27th year. At the kick-off party last spring, held in the penthouse of Museum Tower, Jill Herz, board chair of Family Gateway, talked about the agency’s dream of ending child homelessness in Dallas by 2017. After Friday’s event, I’d say they are well on their way!

This year’s luncheon took place on September 6, at the newly decked out Joule Hotel in the heart of downtown Dallas. The organization was beautiful, as guests were greeted as soon as they emerged from the endearing valets – mine told me, unsolicited, how nice I looked! (He got a HUGE tip!) Garry Potts directed and produced a super video and PSA spot for Gateway as a donation in kind, and talented Shane Walker, who is opening a fab new store down in Trinity Groves, created all of the centerpieces that were available for purchase.

Celebrity Waiter Luncheon 2012: Seeing is Believing

2012 Celebrity Waiter Participants

Holly Davis and Renee Rouleau
photo: Renee Rouleau

This year's Celebrity Waiter Luncheon benefiting Family Gateway lived up to the hype.  Oh yes. It did.  Steve Kemble brought his high-energy to the stage as emcee for the day. His job was more like herding cats!  

Benny Black gave some society lady a lap dance, Hunter Sullivan made the gals swoon with his crooning, Teresa Frosini did a Shkira-inspired belly dance,  the ladies of Big Rich Texas danced on stage, Courtney Kerr was slapping stick-on mustache's on everyone for a donation and I could go an and on...

2012 Celebrity Waiter Luncheon Kick-Off Party Sets the Stage for a Raucous Good Time

The 2012 Celebrity Waiter Luncheon Kick-Off Party was held this past Wednesday night at Winston’s Supper Club in Uptown. Belvedere Vodka provided three signature cocktails while Winston's passed delicious flat breads and bites!

Kick-Off Party Co-Chairs Lindsay Jacaman and Jaime Singer (pictured left with this year's Luncheon Co-Chairs Maggie Kipp and Shay Geyer) did a fabulous job of launching this year's festivities in style! Celebrity Waiter Luncheon host Steve Kemble introduced all celebrity waiters while the crowd cheered on!

The 2012 Celebrity Waiter Luncheon benefiting Family Gateway will be held Friday, September 7, 2012 at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas and will kick off Family Gateway’s 25^th anniversary in style.

Celebrity Waiter Luncheon Group Shot - Celebrities, Chairs and Family Gateway Executives

At this entertaining and lively luncheon, local business, media, political, entertainment and sports personalities will volunteer as celebrity waiters and serve guests for a great cause!  Each table sponsor hosts a table of 10 generous guests who come prepared to tip their waiters with wild abandon and bid for the extraordinary and unique auction items dangled in front of them.

Waiters seek tips in eccentric ways - pocketing your silverware, withholding your meal, singing, performing and dancing; the antics are endless as waiters go to great lengths to raise the most money during 90 action-packed minutes.  An exciting silent and live auction will take place, and all proceeds will benefit Family Gateway.

(left)  Courtney Kerr, Matt Nordgren & Shona Gilbert  (top right) Leslie Boysen and LeeAnne Locken
(bottom left)  Dorris Jacobs and Carmaleta Whiteley

Last year's event had Steve Kemble and LeeAnne Locken leading the crowd in a rambunctious version of the Village People's YMCA,  Pamela Martin-Duarte from Big Rich Texas and Candace Crawford Romo sang "Deep In The Heart of Texas" and Lynae Fearing and Tracy Rathbun did the splits...  There is just no telling what will occur at this year's event.  One's thing for sure. This luncheon is worth the price of admission. It's the best show in town!

Celebrity Waiter Luncheon 2011

Daniel Winson Lewis with Cynthia

I had heard that the annual Celebrity Waiter Luncheon benefiting Family Gateway was one of the craziest charity events in town, but I had no idea what I was in for when I accepted an invitation to sit at the head table with Co-Chairs, Shey Geyer and Maggie Cooke Kipp.

Each table sponsor hosted a table of 10 generous guests who came prepared to tip their waiters with wild abandon and bid for the extraordinary and unique auction items dangled in front of them.

Waiters sought tips in eccentric ways - pocketing your silverware, withholding your meal, singing, performing and dancing; the antics were endless as waiters went to great lengths to raise the most money during 90 action-packed minutes.   

Pamela Martin-Duarte from Big Rich Texas and Candace Crawford Romo sang "Deep In The Heart of Texas", Kim Fisher "planked", Lynae Fearing and Tracy Rathbun did the splits... and that was just the beginning!

Click here to see wild and wacky photos from this event

Steve Murray had the daunting job of trying to wrangle this herd of cats as emcee of the luncheon.  This year's roster of stars included: Notah Begay, Steve Blow, Kris Clinton, Ron Corning, Rich Emberlin, Lynae Fearing, Kim Fischer, Lisa Garza, Melani Ismail, Rocket Ismail, Steve Kemble, Daniel Lewis, LeeAnne Locken, Pamela Martin-Durate, Gina Miller, Dan Pritchett, Tracy Rathbun, Marco Rivera, Candice Crawford Romo, Penny Sadler, Rhonda Sargent Chambers, D’Andra Simmons, Victoria Snee, Grant Stinchfield, Hunter Sullivan and Ty Treadway.

 Fun from my table: (top) Cynthia Smoot, Shay Geyer, (bottom) Shannon Brower, Cathy Vieth, our Celebrity Waiter, Steve Kemble and Maggie Cooke Kipp

According to the Dallas Observer‘s Brantley Hargrove, who was covering Mike Modano‘s retirement press conference being held in the next room, “Though women at a ‘celebrity waiters luncheon’ screamed in a conference room next door, and the bass line of YMCA throbbed through the walls, Modano was wistful.” Well, maybe Mike should have come next door and we could've cheered him up... because we were having lots of fun and raising lots of money for Family Place!

Exhibit A:




About Family Gateway:
Family Gateway breaks the generational cycle of homelessness by providing individualized care to homeless families with children; restoring the dignity, stability and self-sufficiency of the family unit.

Photos courtesy of James Edward 

Special thanks to Stephanie Anne for letting me wear some fabulous jewelry from her new Fall Collection. You can find Stephanie Anne jewelry at Neiman Marcus or her flagship boutique in Highland Park Village. 

Celebrity Waiter Luncheon Counts Down to September 23

Family Gateway's "Celebrity Waiter Luncheon" Chairman Shay Geyer and Maggie Kipp hosted a countdown party at TOOTSIES for this year's annual luncheon, which will be held on September 23. Guests enjoyed nibbles, cocktails and informal modeling by this year's Celebrity Waiters featuring designs from BCBG and emceed by Rhonda Sargent Chambers of RSC Productions. 15% of the evenings sales went to benefit Family Gateway.

(top) Shear Genius star/hair stylist Daniel Winson Lewis and "Oh So Cynthia" Smoot, Allison Edwards and Courtney Edwards from Where Wear In The City with fashion designer, Sarah Jones of Status  (bottom) Maggie Kipp, BCBG representative, Victoria Snee, Lisa Garza, LeeAnne Locken, Shay Geyer, Alison Volk of Tootsies and Rhonda Sargent Chambers

Family Gateway's "Celebrity Waiter Luncheon" event is an entertaining and lively luncheon with silent and live auctions featuring celebrities from local business, media, politics, sports and entertainment industries as waiters. 

Each table sponsor hosts a table of 10 generous guests who come prepared to tip their waiters with wild abandon and to bid for the extraordinary and unique auction items.

Waiters seek tips in eccentric ways - pocketing your silverware, withholding your meal, singing, performing and dancing; the antics are endless as waiters will go to great lengths to raise the most money during 90 action-packed minutes. This lively competition between waiters results in important funds being raised for Family Gateway.

Click here to see photo's from this event on Facebook

About Family Gateway: 
Family Gateway breaks the generational cycle of homelessness by providing individualized care to homeless families with children; restoring the dignity, stability and self-sufficiency of the family unit.

Celebrity Waiter Luncheon Kick-Off Party

Save the date! This September 23, Shay Geyer and Maggie Kipp will chair the entertaining and lively Celebrity Waiter Luncheon benefiting Family Gateway complete with a silent and live auction featuring celebrities from local business, media, politics, sports and entertainment industries as waiters.

(standing)  Jeff Crilley, Victoria Snee, Shay Geyer, Maggie Kipp

(sitting) Amy Vanderoef, LeeAnne Locken, Vivian Fullerlove, Hunter Sullivan and D'Andra Simmons

A kick-off party was held at DUO tonight to celebrate this upcoming event. So, what interesting tidbits did I glean from the night's attendees? Well.......

Did you know that Victoria Snee was an author?!  She and I chatted about her upcoming book signing.  She'll be appearing at Stephanie Anne's in Highland Park Village next Thursday from 11 am to 1 pm.

Come meet Victoria and buy a signed copy of Snee's book "The Beauty Buzz. No More Beauty B.S." If you're unable to come by, don't worry! I sweet-talked Victoria into giving me a signed copy of her book that I will be giving away on this blog in the next few weeks!!

D'Andra Simmons was excited to point me to her Facebook Page to check out the sexy new photos just taken for an upcoming marketing campaign for her skincare line, Hard Night, Good Morning.  All I have to say after seeing them, is "WOW. Gimme some of that stuff!" 

One of my favorite labels is Alice + Olivia. Alison Volk was totally stoked to invite me (and all of you) to see their latest collection at Tootsie's tomorrow - Thursday, June 2 - at a reception hosted by Dallas Summer Musicals honoring members of Center Stage from 6-8 PM.

I had a great time swooning over talking to Hunter Sullivan.  He'll be performing at the launch of Bailey's Prime Plus new Craft Cocktail Menu next Tuesday at a soiree that I will be co-hosting at their Park Lane location. Lucky me!

click here to view a gallery of photos from this event

So, what can one expect at the Celebrity Waiter Luncheon this Fall? Each table sponsor will host a table of 10 generous guests who come prepared to tip their waiters with wild abandon and to bid for the extraordinary and unique auction items.

Alison Volk with Chris and Jennifer LeLash

The waiters will seek tips in eccentric ways - pocketing your silverware, withholding your meal, singing, performing and dancing; the antics are endless as waiters will go to great lengths to raise the most money during 90 action-packed minutes. This fierce competition between waiters results in important funds being raised for Family Gateway.

For more information about how to get your tickets to this funtastic event, visit Family Gateway.