The Jim Valvano Classic Reception ~ 2006

For the last 13-14 years, there has been a golf classic and reception dinner and gala for the Jim Valvano Foundation, to raise money for cancer research.This year's event was held at the RBC Center in Raleigh, the home of the Cup-winning Hurricanes and of NCSU Basketball.They have a silent auction and a live auction, of donated items from such notables as Tiger Woods, Dean Smith and other national sports figures, as well as artists, jewelers, auto makers and vacation travel providers.

The theme was Moulin Rouge, and my boss and his company of floral designers brought that theme to life, through flowers and decor. Because the event was held in a sports arena, and the building is not exactly what you might choose for the setting of an elegant dinner, our work was cut out for us. All the pipe and drape available is not enough to screen out the background sea of seats and a ceiling full of pipes, wires, scaffolding, banners and retired jerseys. Everyone involved rose to the occasion, and while my photos only tell a part of the story, I hope you will enjoy them. Top: one of the many posters we used to set the scene down a long, curving hallway. Middle and Bottom: two examples of the floral arrangements. There were 85 tables; six of them had the arrangements in the bottom photo and the rest were like the ones in the middle photo. I will show the rest of that table arrangement in the next set of photos. Be sure to scroll down for those.