The White-​​Wilson Cen­ter for Women’s Imag­ing has part­nered with local orga­ni­za­tions to host the sec­ond annual Lit­tle Black Dress Party, and to give-​​away 10 Total Woman’s Health Packages!

Due to the cur­rent eco­nomic cli­mate, a star­tling new trend has emerged. Pre­ven­tive health screen­ings, such as a mam­mo­gram, are down 30 per­cent nation­wide. In order to make pre­ven­tive health screen­ings more acces­si­ble to the women in our com­mu­nity, the White-​​Wilson Cen­ter for Woman’s Imag­ing is giv­ing away a screen­ing mam­mo­gram and bone den­sity scan to the 10 win­ners of the Total Woman’s Health Package.

The Total Woman’s Health Pack­age includes the following:

• A screen­ing mammogram
• Bone den­sity scan
• Lit­tle black dress from Dillard’s
• Life Bal­ance pack­age from Suc­cess with Desley
• Mas­sage from It’s All About You Mas­sage and Day Spa
• $75 Gift Card
• 2 Tick­ets to the Lit­tle Black Dress Party
• Lots of other girly goodies!

To be eli­gi­ble to win the Total Woman’s Health Pack­age, you must be a woman, a res­i­dent of Okaloosa, Wal­ton or Santa Rosa Coun­ties and 18 years of age by March 31, 2011. To reg­is­ter for the Total Woman’s Health Pack­age visit www​.fwblit​tle​black​dress​party​.com.

Early detec­tion is the most effec­tive way to fight back against debil­i­tat­ing dis­eases like breast can­cer, osteo­poro­sis and heart dis­ease. The White-​​Wilson Cen­ter for Women’s Imag­ing and Emer­ald Ladies Jour­nal have part­nered with Dillard’s, Qan­tum Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Cox Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, The Pro­mo­tions Chick, Emer­ald Chic and other local orga­ni­za­tions to raise aware­ness regard­ing the impor­tance of pre­ven­ta­tive health­care amongst women and to host the sec­ond annual Lit­tle Black Dress Party.

The Lit­tle Black Dress Party is May 21 at the Emer­ald Coast Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, and will fea­ture a fash­ion show by Dillard’s, an auc­tion, heavy hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. Tick­ets are $60 and 100% of event pro­ceeds will ben­e­fit The Shel­ter House, Oppor­tu­nity Inc., and the local chap­ters of The Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety and The Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion. Call 863‑8204 for tick­ets, or visit www​.fwblit​tle​black​dress​party​.com.

As Alys Beach fell into the dis­tance while in the back seat of my friends con­vert­ible, me and my friends, all elated from the night’s event, stared at the stars and won­dered just how can such nat­ural beauty be per­son­i­fied into what turned out to be the most sen­sual soirée of the year. Dig­i­tal Graf­fiti pegged every artis­tic but­ton on my meter. Rethink­ing the evening while feel­ing the breeze across my face and rid­ing along scenic 30-​​A, I couldn’t help but truly appre­ci­ate the eclec­tic nature of Santa Rosa Beach and the pure vibrancy that it brings to those of us who allow it to pen­e­trate our minds, hearts, and emo­tions. To me, Dig­i­tal Graf­fiti not only hits home, it becomes a part of my cre­ative nature and infil­trates my senses in a way that no other artis­tic event can in this area.

The venue alone is enough to trans­port you from here to another exotic loca­tion as it always does with me. Artists from across the world show­cased their mas­ter­pieces of dig­i­tal art pro­jected on the stark white walls of Alys Beach’s com­mu­nity of homes. Cal­iza Pool, a part of Alys Beach, which in itself is a mas­ter­piece, was adorned with col­or­ful images and beau­ti­ful peo­ple danc­ing to music, played by a DJ was who ele­vated on a plat­form over the pool.

All in all, I am, and have always been, a walk­ing bill­board for this event. It is indeed the party of the year and quite frankly, kicked off my sum­mer in the best way pos­si­ble. If you missed it this year, check out some pho­tos and a few videos of the win­ning artists. Truly amazing.…

Dig­i­tal Graf­fit 2010 Entry Bala Boyd–Void? from Bala Boyd on Vimeo.

Bomb­shell from Don Relyea on Vimeo.

Nearly 300 men and women came together to pro­mote women’s health and raise money for local char­i­ties at the first annual Lit­tle Black Dress Party on May 22, at the Emer­ald Coast Con­fer­ence Cen­ter. The event included a Fash­ion Show by Dillard’s, live and silent auc­tions, a live band, great food and a fab­u­lous time!

The White-​​Wilson Cen­ter for Women’s Imag­ing part­nered with Emer­ald Ladies Jour­nal and other local orga­ni­za­tions to host the event. Over $15,000 was raised for The Shel­ter House, Oppor­tu­nity Inc., and the local chap­ters of The Amer­i­can Can­cer Soci­ety and The Amer­i­can Heart Association.

Each char­ity was pre­sented a check for $3,700 at the Lit­tle Black Dress Wrap-​​Up Recep­tion on June 30, 2010 at Two Trees Restau­rant in Fort Wal­ton Beach.

If you didn’t make it to the event this year, don’t hang your LBD (lit­tle black dress) up quite yet. Plans are already in the works for another event in 2011.

For more infor­ma­tion on this event or for a list of rec­om­mended annual health screen­ings visit: http://​www​.white​-wil​son​.com/​l​i​t​t​l​e​b​l​a​c​k​d​r​e​s​s​p​a​r​t​y​.​htm.

Here’s some video cov­er­age we took dur­ing the big gala for Oper­a­tion Smile. Check it out and see who we saw walk­ing the red carpet!

Wall St. was all a buzz last night as celebri­ties, socialites, and phil­an­thropists filed in to Cipriani’s for the annual gala for Oper­a­tion Smile, a world­wide non-​​profit orga­ni­za­tion which adamantly works towards giv­ing chil­dren the one thing that always remains a uni­ver­sal sign of encour­age­ment, hap­pi­ness, and heart…a smile.

With paparazzi swarm­ing, camera’s flashed and videos recorded (includ­ing ours) as guests stepped out on the red car­pet and into the lime­light. Hon­orary guest, Jes­sica Simp­son, gra­ciously greeted those seek­ing her com­ments and expe­ri­ence she’s had with Oper­a­tion Smile over the past year. As a Smile Ambas­sador, Jes­sica, has donated her time and tal­ents to sup­port and reach out to those chil­dren who are born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, the cen­tral goal for this non-​​profit. Last year’s efforts in India were the main rea­son for last night’s cel­e­bra­tion, which also cul­mi­nated in rais­ing sev­eral hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars for the cause.

Thanks to styl­ist, Wayne Har­ris, who styled me up in a beau­ti­ful long gown from Jovani, I ven­tured in Cipri­ani where I met Patrick, our fash­ion cor­re­spon­dent who looked fab in his Byb­los tux and Gucci shoes.

The gala began with a per­for­mance by a Bol­ly­wood dance troupe and post-​​dinner was an amaz­ing duo of DJ plus vio­lin­ist, Caitlin Moe, who lit­er­ally rocked the house. Dressed to impress, designer labels adorned every­one seated inside Cipriani’s, which in itself is a piece of art with huge mar­ble columns and his­tor­i­cal archi­tec­ture. Other celebrity atten­dees included the evening’s host,  Nick Can­non, Nigel Parry, Melanie Dunea, Lydia Hearst, Jai Rodriguez, and sev­eral others.

Patrick, myself, along with friends in tow, all par­tic­i­pated in the evening’s affairs. A video shown dur­ing the night show­cased all the hard work and effort that paid off dur­ing much of the time spent in India pro­vid­ing surg­eries for chil­dren in need of care. One par­tic­u­lar guest of note was brought on stage, but this time, it wasn’t a celebrity or famous social fig­ure. It was a sweet lit­tle girl from India who was liv­ing proof that Oper­a­tion Smile is worth keep­ing alive. With a per­fect smile and per­fect teeth, you would have never known that this young lady was born with a cleft palate and had gone through sev­eral major surg­eries for some­one as young as she.

Def­i­nitely tap­ping into my inner phil­an­thropist and my urge to shed a tear, it was with great appre­ci­a­tion that I watched and learned about this orga­ni­za­tion and their inten­sive efforts all around the world. Hats off to those who sup­port, vol­un­teer, and part­ner with Oper­a­tion Smile. Besides, smiles are so con­ta­gious, why wouldn’t we want every­one to have one!!

Art on walls. Seems sim­ple enough.…But dig­i­tal art pro­jected on the illus­tri­ous white walls of Alys Beach? A WHOLE dif­fer­ent story. Every June, for the past three years, artists and vis­i­tors from all over the world make their way to the infa­mous and always cap­ti­vat­ing Alys Beach for one of the world’s most amaz­ing events - Dig­i­tal Graf­fiti.

An event I anx­iously await for every year, this fes­ti­val of arts stands alone in its beauty, mag­nif­i­cence and grandeur. If you’re not famil­iar with Dig­i­tal Graf­fiti, then you are way behind the curve. The grow­ing pop­u­lar­ity of DG has only proven that Alys Beach knows how to throw a party. Not only a party, but a world-​​renowned cul­mi­na­tion of artists, music, fab­u­lous peo­ple, and of course all come together at Cal­iza Pool, my out­let to another civilization.

After hun­dreds of sub­mis­sions, and much debate I’m sure, DG has recently announced the list of artists who made the final cut and will be show­cas­ing their art on Sat­ur­day, June 12, 2010. You DON’T want to miss this!!!

1. “Aes­thetic Species Maps” by David Mont­gomery of Fer­nan­d­ina Beach, Florida
2. “Alys Beach 3D Struc­ture Pro­jec­tion” by Christo­pher Lee of Dothan, Alabama
3. “Bomb­shell” by Don Relyea of Dal­las, Texas
4. “Eye Spy” by Rus­sell Beans of Seacrest, Florida
5. “Five Por­traits in Five Min­utes” by Kasumi of Cleve­land, Ohio
6. “Flight­pat­tern” by Gwen Van­hee of Zedel­gem, Belgium
7. “Frosti” by Matt Pear­son of Brighton, United Kingdom
8. “Geom­e­try of Poi” by Kate Riegle — van West of Chicago, Illinois
9. “Green­ray” by Andre Rangel of Portugal
10. “Human Flux” by Nikola Mihov of Sofia, Bulgaria
11. “Inner Klänge” by Lemeh42 of Moter­ado, Italy
12. “JD’s Fun House 2010″ by John Daniel of Panama City, Florida
13. “Kalei­do­scopia” by Andy McK­e­own of Shrews­bury, United Kingdom
14. “Laser Art” by Christo­pher Lee of Dothan, Alabama
15. “Lumi­nous Curiosi­ties” by Christina Pier­son of Los Ange­les, California
16. “Moon­lit McGill” by Amber Bush­nell of Mis­soula, Montana
17. “Night Walk­ers” by Yan­dell Wal­ton of VIC, Australia
18. “Organic Cycles” by Kris­ten Regan of Pen­sacola, Florida
19. “Part of the Surge and Not the Sea” by Kevin Romoser of Wayne, New Jersey
20. “Planet Cal­iza” by Kurt Lis­chka of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
21. “Re-​​Birth” by Said Dokins and Mauri­cio Rodriguez of Cuauhte­moc, Mexico
22. “Res­o­nance” by Charles Raf­fety of Mis­soula, Montana
23. “Roberto” by David Ter­ra­nova of New York, New York
24. “SAN” by Jack­son Petit of The Bahamas
25. “Sous­bleu” by Gwen Van­hee of Zedel­gem, Belgium
26. “Take Care” by Matt Pear­son of Brighton, United Kingdom
27. “The Ancient Mariner” by Michael Bur­ton of Lin­coln, Nebraska
28. “Trans­mis­sion (32 chan­nels)” by Sam Holden of Lon­don, United Kingdom
29. “True Fic­tions: Home of the Brave” by Mal­colm Lit­son of Lon­don, United Kingdom
30. “UGOKU” by Kasumi of Cleve­land, Ohio
31. “untitled_(memory)” by Matthew West of Sioux Falls, South Dakota
32. “Vacio” by Daniel Ivan of Ame­cameca, Mexico
33. “Void?” by Bala Boyd of Freeport, Florida
34. “Walk­ers” by Nick Rands of Lon­don, United Kingdom
35. “White Dishes” by Stephanie Paine of Lafayette, Indiana
36. “Win­nipeg Sto­ries: Sac­ri­fi­cial Mem­o­ries” by Clint Enns of Win­nipeg, Canada

WHAT A NIGHT!!

The loca­tion — gor­geous… The drinks — potent… The crowd — super sexy… The “Oceans 07” Pisces birth­day event did not disappoint!!!

Orig­i­nally started at Bruce Willis’ Spy­der Room sev­eral years ago, then only mod­els, Patrick Hazle­wood and Adam Cringler hosted the 1^st annual “Swim­ming with the Fishes” birth­day party.  It was a small but chic affair with an all white theme.

The “lit­tle gath­er­ing” has expanded to include other Pisces e.g. graphic design guru Michelle Foer­ster, leather designer Aaron Arling­haus, model and tal­ent man­ager Bran­don Mills, and actress Ash­leigh Jen­nifer Parker (her absence regret­tably was due to a seri­ous auto acci­dent, we wish her bet­ter).  Pre­vi­ous events have been held in such chic New York spots as Ruby Falls, Aer, Upstairs.  This year guests enjoyed the amaz­ingly hos­pitable Hud­son Terrace.

This year, the event’s theme was “Glam­our Glam­our” — and more glam­our was deliv­ered.  Sev­eral guests were bedecked in evening gowns, chic suits, and tuxe­dos.  The glass ceil­ing was lit with thou­sands of tiny stars, as guests sipped on the cus­tom designed “Oceans 7″ cock­tails.  The beats were pro­vided by DJ Jeff Haze, the “new kid on the block” who is mak­ing a seri­ous name for him­self around New York City.

Guests received the sig­na­ture neck­lace cre­ated by Haus Leather, which has become a much-​​sought– after memento of each year’s ‘do’ and were then directed to the cen­ter cabana where the cel­e­brants held court. Our fab­u­lous fash­ion cor­re­spon­dent, Patrick Hazle­wood was sport­ing a clas­sic din­ner jacket, bow-​​tie and dark rimmed glasses… “a Tom-​​Ford-​​Moment” that only a clas­sic man like him could pull off.  Deadly-​​chic Bran­don Mills rocked a killer black suit by Paul LaFontaine — the gents looked dapper.

The ladies didn’t dis­ap­point either. Dark-​​haired beauty Fabi­ana Por­tolano, of Por­tolano cashmere-​​fame, and the enchant­ing green-​​eyes, was resplen­dent in a floor length Tadashi gown with a daz­zling train, which con­trasted with the BCBG Max Azria short dress and Chris­t­ian Laboutin heels worn by actress Fiona Kuchina. Other nota­bles present included super­mod­els Ryan Daharsh, Oliver Bork, Jis­lain Duval, Tim Rev­ell and Sean Harju, pho­tog­ra­pher Ren Sal­iba, actors Thomas Beau­doin, Sam Sny­der, and John Vit­ulli, dancer Ash­ley Lay­field, and Moulin Rouge star Brook­lyn Pascoe.