Maybe the best Halloween costume party in Little Rock, certainly the best one for a cause, is the Tiny Hands Monster Bash. The frivolity benefits The Family Home, low-cost housing for people receiving outpatient treatment at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and parents of premature infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
This party was fo' real Oct. 30. One couple went as a bar of soap (him) and a loofah (her). Three gentlemen procured Star Wars imperial storm troopers get-ups that appeared to be real set costumes. Country music star Justin Moore was there with his entourage of T-Birds from Grease.
Costume awards went to Cory Leigh Taylor (individual, for Chanel Purse), Natalie and Win Rockefeller (couple, Suzanne Somers and Richard Simmons), and Cambre and Chad Pekron and Candace and Evan Wilon (group, the Sticker Family car decals).
About 300 turned out at Next Level Events. This was the 13th year for the fundraiser, which last year raised about $80,000. Numbers aren't in, but Robin Dean, who's a de facto director -- it's a staff of two -- says it will be a little more this year. The money raised -- tickets were $60 -- will be about two-thirds of the operating expenses for the home, Dean says.
The band Just Sayin' was awesome (vocalist Chris Thomas' approximation of Journey's Steve Perry is head-turning). Mark your calendar for Oct. 28 next year.
The honorees for the night were UAMS Myeloma Institute Drs. Gareth Morgan and Faith Davies, who handed out the Compassionate Care awards given each year to an employee of the cancer institute and an employee of the neonatal intensive care unit; recipients were Maria Jolly and Marie Williamson, respectively. The Heart of the Home award went to Julia Shockley.
"We've struggled with an awareness problem," Dean lamented earlier this week. "We're run with a very, very small staff of two people. You know, we're right here in the heart of the city in a fabulous place, but we've had a hard time gaining awareness."
Maybe Tiny Hands will make a big difference.
-- Photos and story by
Bobby Ampezzan
High Profile on 11/08/2015