Your Life - Entertainment - Arts

Friday, Oct. 30, 2009

Tonight’s Bid For Life offers art, jewelry, hope

A porcelain male angel that Ray Ebberman bought because it spoke to him of hope, and a signed print of George Rodrigue’s “The Blue Dog Band” are among nearly 400 items up for auction at tonight’s 13th Annual Bid for Life benefit for the South Mississippi AIDS Task Force.

Hosted by The Beau Rivage Casino and Resort, it will be from 7-11 p.m. in the Camellia Ballroom, starting with a 6-7 p.m. reception for the artists and sponsoring patrons.

Adding to its allure, the Blue Dog print will be retired after this fall, said SMATF director Amanda Breckenridge.

Ebberman’s angel, called “The Angel of Hope” and which he donated in order to pass on the hope it gives him, Breckenridge said, is about 2-and-a-half feet high with an alabaster finish.

All funds raised at “Bid for Life” will directly benefit the citizens of Harrison, Hancock, Jackson, Pearl River, George and Stone counties. Tickets are $45 and can be purchased by contacting SMATF at 385-1214, online at SMATF.com or at the door.

“We have items in both the silent and live auctions for everyone’s budget,” Breckenridge said, listing jewelry, paintings, photographs, pottery, spa treatments, teeth-whitening treatments, skin rejuvenation packages.

As has become a tradition, the George Rosetti family donated a pen and ink drawing created by their son, Michael Rosetti, who died of AIDS, but during his illness drew Live oaks along the Coast.

Breckenridge estimates there are at least 275 locally donated artworks.

Signed Playbills from Broadway plays have been donated by Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. There’s a Lion King poster signed by its Broadway cast, and one of Breckenridge’s former students in California has sent items autographed by the cast of “Sordid Lives.”

About 275 local artists have donated artworks.

One of two color photos by Neil Ladner, which shows a bicycle against an old building, is from his series shot at a particular spot in the New Orleans French Quarter; and the other is a tranquil scent of a distant boat house with soft marsh grasses in the foreground.

There is handmade jewelry, a basket of LSU items and 12 months of flowers, an arrangement every month, donated by Always & Forever Florist in Biloxi.

Attesting to the stark need for funding, Harrison County for the past two years ranks second in Mississippi in newly diagnosed HIV cases, Breckenridge said.

“Because of the economy, even foundations and other funding sources are reducing the amount of funds available,” she said, “so we are having to count heavily on people right here at home. In Mississippi and especially on the Coast, we do take care of our own, and I’m hoping everyone will come out and support this cause because we sure do need that.”