API Wellness’ 2011 BLOOM Event

by Kevyn

I got invited to attend API Wellness Center’s annual charity event, Bloom, last Thursday the 19th, and it was a fun event filled with love, champagne, and Asians. It’s always comforting to see a community come together and donate for a good cause. A lot of the board members have been working with API Wellness for last couple of decades and it was fun to hang out with them and others at the San Fransisco Design Center which is truly a beautiful venue. BLOOM is one of the, if not the, biggest charity events geared towards the API LGBT communities in the US, and it was an honor be apart of such an event.

What is that you ask? What is the API Wellness Center? I will tell you.

Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center is a health services, education, research and policy organization dedicated to educating, supporting, empowering and advocating for Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) communities-particularly A&PIs living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS. Please check out them out at www.APIWellness.org.

What’s that you say? How did I, Kevyn-Hot-Mess-Fong, get invited to such a classy event?

I feel that I can contribute one of three things to anything API or LGBT related:

1) Sarcastic wit

2) Tips on flat ironing your hair

3) Peter Fever

I met Ben, a board member for API Wellness, at a Queerious event at the San Fransisco Asian American International Film Festival and he expressed interest in working with Peter for this event. Since I work with Peter, I set him up and we were able to use Peter’s services in the silent auction (all proceeds go to API Wellness).

The API Flyer and the Swag Bag

Mayor Ed Lee was in attendance and gave a great speech about diversity and his support for the community. San Fransisco celebrities, the Rice Rockettes, were also in attendance and the event was hosted by the lovely Tita Aida, who, I swear, is my older sister.

Tita Aida With Peter Fever And A Fan Promoting His Silent Auction

Peter and the Rice Rockettes

The event was a success!  Ben later told me that this year raised the most money than any other year! Congrats to API Wellness and everyone who attended this event!

And if you’re a visual person, here’s the video blog Peter made about the event. Please ignore my stumbling words and my voice.

For more information on API Wellness and this event click here and to see more Peter Fever click here.