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Events

[click "Play" to hear Scott Grossman speak about his direction of the TAB Fashion Show]

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Scott Grossman

It's the pitch perfect tribute, Robert Presley to a "T": "Out of Your Comfort Zone/Step Out of the Box," director Scott Grossman's theme for the 2010 Telluride AIDS Benefit no-holds-barred fashion show. The annual event takes place at the Telluride Conference Center in the Mountain Village, Thursday, February 25 for the Sneak Peak and Saturday, February 27, for the super nova explosion. Doors, 7 p.m. Show time, 8 p.m.

Outrageous. In your face. Fearless. Talented, Funny. Smart. Generous. Those are just a few of the words Presley's friends used to describe the man who inspired the AIDS awareness event and major bash that manages to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for HIV/AIDS interventions and prevention education around the globe.

27 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Jake Spaulding's conversation with Susan]

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Jake Spaulding

Dateline: Shanghai. It's there and all over China, where it began. About 120 million of them on the road and counting.

Dateline: Telluride. It's coming.

We are talking about a great alternative to a car. We are talking electric bikes, increasingly the vehicle of choice from bike messengers in New York to postal workers in Germany and commuters all over the world. While sales were relatively modest in the American market last year (only 200,000 were sold) interest is picking up.

26 February, 2010 /



The girl can't help. For 16 years, Baerbel Hacke, director of the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, has put together a silent art auction for the Telluride AIDS Benefit. This year's event takes place Friday, February 26, noon – 9 p.m. at the historic Sheridan Opera House.

Ever notice that the word "pain" is embedded in "painting?" The Telluride AIDS Benefit's auction, however, is a wonderful way to transform pain into gain for the nonprofit's six beneficiaries.
25 February, 2010 /
Unknown The Telluride AIDS Benefit has grown every year since its grassrootsy beginning in 1994. And since that first year, the Western Colorado AIDS Project has been the event's primary recipient, because the Benefit's muse, Robert Presley, determined to keep WestCAP, his medical provider in time of need, healthy. TAB's generosity, however, extends way beyond WestCAP all the way to Africa, with stops along the way on the Front Range, home to the Denver Children's Hospital Immunodeficiency Program or CHIP.

CHIP began providing specialized care for HIV+ children in the Rocky Mountain region in 1991. CHIP remains the only entity in the region providing comprehensive, coordinated, family-centered services to infants, children, youth (13-24), pregnant women, and parents of HIV-infected children.
25 February, 2010 /
["click "Play" to hear Brother Jeff speak about his partnership with TAB]

IMG_0098 The relationship between the Telluride AIDS Benefit and Brother Jeff is a prime example of the whole being greater than the sums of its parts.


The Telluride AIDS Benefit casts a long, wide shadow that extends all the way from the Western Slope to Africa. One of TAB's success stories on the Front Range is Brother Jeff's Health Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of African Americans living with HIV/AIDS regardless of age, faith, background or sexual orientation. With the help of TAB, the Initiative now reaches thousands of people each year through HIV conferences, summits, workshops, presentations at high schools, universities, and at various health-related institutions.
24 February, 2010 /
[click "Play", Amy Kimberly speaks about the history and impact of the Telluride AIDS Benefit]

The Telluride Historical Museum is hosting another of its popular Fireside Chats, this one at Capella Telluride in the Mountain Village: The True Telluride Story – Telluride AIDS Benefit. Kandee Degraw and Daiva Chesonis reveal the backstory of the Telluride AIDS Benefit. The event takes place at 5 p.m., February 24.

The Telluride AIDS Benefit began life as a Free Box-style grassroots initiative.

Robert Presley was a fabric artist and enfant terrible, beloved throughout the Telluride community. His costly battle with HIV/AIDS – made worse by the fact he was living in rural Colorado and had to commute to get medical help –  mobilized a group of his buddies.
23 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Steve Fassbinder's interview with Susan]

Doomsday He's known as Dr. Doom, an interesting coincidence for anyone participating in the Telluride AIDS Benefit, an organization whose mission is to turn the tables on doom through Awareness, Respect, and Esteem. A.R.E. You Safe? is the theme of the non-profit's 2010 fundraising, outreach and education campaign which culminates in the gala fashion show, Saturday night, February 27, where Dr. Doom will be a featured designer for the third year in a row.


Dr. Doom is Steve Fassbinder's alter ego, a name from Burning Man that stuck to his skin like the desert heat. Fassbinder is, to pull out a well worn but nonetheless true cliche, a Renaissance man: the former bike messenger and three-time Single Speed World 24-hour Solo Champ and inductee into the 24-Hour Solo Mountain Bike Racer Hall of Fame is also an artist who refuses to be pigeon-holed.
22 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Ed Hendrikson]

Africa 08 086 As the definition of the world shrinks through telecommunications and tragedy, countries become communities like Telluride, with different constituencies but similar challenges. AIDS is one problem we all share. Yes, still.

The Telluride AIDS Benefit is a model nonprofit: the organization asks for very little in monetary support from the greater Telluride region, but puts Telluride on the world map in a good way: TAB's welcomed embrace extends all the way to Africa.
 
AIDS may be the worst health calamity since the Black Death of the Middle Ages, on a fast track to becoming the worst pandemic ever. And, according to online research, 10 of the 11 infections that take place every minute around the globe occur in Sub-Sahran Africa, where in some countries teachers, doctors and nurses are dying faster than they can be replaced and treatment ranges from poor to nonexistent.

19 February, 2010 /
[click "Play", Nina Tumbas talks about why she works with the TAB fashion show]

363224895306_0_ALB Toss the rule book when it comes to Telluride. We make up our own. Witness the theme of the 2010 Telluride AIDS Benefit fashion show: "Out of your comfort zone. Step out of the box." Expect the unexpected, as expected.


The ideal female fashion model is tall, long-legged, and lean. Their minimum height is usually about 5'8"+ and average weight, between 108-125 lbs.  Generally speaking they are sent to the glue factory past 22. Not in Telluride. In Telluride models come in all shapes, sizes and ages. On the runway of the Telluride AIDS Benefit fashion show, the highlight of a week of outreach and education, talks, HIV screening, and a major art auction, you find an equal mix swizzle sticks and classic egg timers (in and out shapes). At the Telluride AIDS Benefit fashion show, brains meets beauty, personality rules the night, and fashion meets compassion: Enter Nina Tumbas.

18 February, 2010 /


The Telluride AIDS Benefit's Student Fashion Show, February 18, 6 pm., The Palm, is a warm up to the Big Event on February 27 at the Telluride Conference Center in the Mountain Village. But what is true of the gala fashion show is true of the teen event: beneath the sizzle, the through line is the persistence of the pandemic and the need for ongoing support of those with HIV/AIDS and their families and prevention education to keep everyone else safe.

The Telluride AIDS Benefit's Grand Vizer, Ron Gilmer, has been on a soapbox for years: he believes there should be Telluride AIDS Benefity events in communities around the world to help stop the spread of the disease. TAB board member/longtime student activist-educator Sandy McLaughlin wholeheartedly agrees. Year after year Sandy leads TAB's education initiative at the she want them to do more than listen. She want kids to hear. To get it. One who does is Sandy's daughter Mia, a graduating senior/ peer educator like all the models and 2010 Student Fashion Show director.

17 February, 2010 /