National AIDS fundraiser makes first stop in Detroit

If not for a chance meeting on an elevator in Washington D.C., Dining by Design, the nationally renowned AIDS charity event, probably wouldn't be coming to Detroit for the first time this August.

But when an employee from the Michigan AIDS Coalition bumped into a friend from the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS, they saw partnership potential.

“Detroit is a designing mecca, and DIFFA was just as hungry for us as we were for them,” said Helen Hicks, CEO of the Ferndale-based Michigan AIDS Coalition. “And designers were so excited to jump on board.”

Dining by Design, which allows companies, organizations or individuals to sponsor tables that they elaborately decorate, will be held Aug. 12-14 at the Benson and Edith Ford Conference Center at the College for Creative Studies.

It will be the first time in Dining by Design's 13 years as a national tour that it will stop in Detroit. Organizers expect about a thousand people will attend the three-day event, which will raise approximately $100,000 for the Michigan AIDS Coalition.

The Michigan AIDS Coalition was formed Feb. 1, 2009 when the Michigan AIDS Fund and the Midwest AIDS Prevention Project merged.

“Had we not merged, we never would've been able to put on this event,” said Craig Covey, mayor of Ferndale and COO of the Michigan AIDS Coalition. “It's a lot of work; we were nervous. It will be the largest, most expensive fundraising event we've undergone, but we're very excited.”

Each table, or installation, is approximately 11-feet-by-11-feet or 11-feet-by-20-feet. The public can view the installations Aug. 13. On the evening of Aug. 14, there will be limited public seating as the designers, sponsors and donors will dine on the table installations.

There are no rules when it comes to design.

“Every year is different,” said Steven Williams, DIFFA's director of community relations. “There was a carriage in Atlanta created by students from the Savannah College of Art and Design, where you dined in the carriage. Benjamin Moore Paints did a whole house and table out of paint chips.

“It's interesting how designers incorporate the sponsors' product in creative, subtle ways that aren't in your face.”

The Michigan AIDS Coalition will meet next week to see designs for the Detroit event, with Art Van Furniture, Quicken Loans Inc., CCS, and HOUR Detroit on board as sponsors.

Williams said that DIFFA typically has up to four of its own installations that travel to the different cities, “but this year will be the first year that we won't have national sponsors.”

“It's purely marketing budgets being cut and the economic situation,” he said.New York City-based DIFFA has chapters around the country, including Atlanta, Boston and Chicago. Since 1984, it has granted more than $38 million to hundreds of AIDS service organizations nationwide.

The Dining by Design national tour usually hits six cities a year. The other cities in this year's line-up include: Chicago, New York City, San Francisco, Columbus, Atlanta and Kansas City, where the event began.

Tickets to the Aug. 13 showing are $10. For more information, go to http://michiganaidscoalition.org/events-2/diffa-dining-by-design.