Vogel’s Annual Design & Dine
Featured Exciting Elements from the Worlds of Art, Food and Music and honored this year’s Ambassadors of Hope Award Winners.

On October 7th, Vogel hosted Design & Dine hosted at the Tower Club Dallas. The event was an exciting combination of the local art, food and music scenes in Dallas, with all proceeds directly helping homeless children in Dallas through Vogel’s mission.          

Karen Hughes, Vogel’s president and CEO, began the evening with a VIP reception and the Ambassadors of Hope Awards Ceremony which featured awards of crystal bird sculptures, echoing Vogel’s logo, created especially for the event.  Board chair, John C. Wander, assisted by presenting the awards honoring the individuals and organizations that support Vogel’s mission to help children recover from the traumatic effects of homelessness.

Two very special awards which were named in honor of Vogel’s founders, Thelma Vogel and Doris Budner. The Thelma Vogel Award winner for vision and collaborative efforts for advancing services to homeless children and families was Oliver Wyman.  Special recognition was given to board member Tim Hoyland and current board member Roger Lehman who have led Oliver Wyman’s support of Vogel.         

The Doris Budner award is given to a person who has shown a special commitment through their leadership to advance the Vogel mission.  The award recipient, Willie Baronet, is a committed advocate for homeless people and organizations through his organization – WeAreAllHomeless.org. 

Other honorees were: Corporate Champion, Houlihan Lokey; Media Partner, Fox 4 – KDFW; Volunteer Award, Joyce Morrison; Kids Helping Kids, 2019 Summer Interns; Board Excellence, Rick Lacher; Community Partner, Community Beer Company.

The live artist performances in the Design Showcase spotlighted artists who created artworks as guests looked on. Artists were Arjoon KC, Randy Jacobs and Joe Taft and a very entertaining caricaturist who created the caricatures on a computer pad and printed them out for guests to wear on lanyards throughout the party.        

Party goers made the social rounds with friends and enjoyed delicious food with cocktails, beer and wine, a raffle/silent auction with a variety of unique prizes, a wine pull booth and entertainment by World Piano Man, Martyn Lucas. Martyn was a striking figure in his formal tuxedo jacket covered in gold sequins that was given to him by Sir Elton John.  Martyn is an exceptionally talented performer who sang at Prince Harry and Meagan Markle’s wedding this past summer and wowed this crowd with his renditions of songs in the voices of Sir Elton John, Pavarotti, Michael Jackson, Bryan Adams, Richard Marx, Axel Rose, Sir Paul McCartney and Louis Armstrong.

Two of the most popular highlights of the evening were the virtual sports-themed games: A football passing game where players tossed footballs to targets on a virtual field and a long drive contest in the golf simulator which challenged players to beat a high score to be entered into a prize drawing.  

Visit the Vogel FB page to see pictures from the event and learn more about the event:  https://www.facebook.com/vogelalcove/  

All proceeds from Design & Dine benefit Vogel, an early childhood education center that is working to Break the Cycle of Poverty for homeless children in families in Dallas. We provide educational, developmental and therapeutic services to children and families affected by homelessness. All of these services are free to our families and are provided in a safe and nurturing environment to learn and grow. To learn more, visit the website at www.vogelalcove.org