Black Tie and Tie-Dye at Great American Music Hall, 2023. Dr. Dave, 2nd from left [Photo by Linda Kelly]
On May 22, 2024, HealthRIGHT 360 (HR360)will hold its annual Black Tie and Tie-Dye (BTTD) at Bimbo’s 365 Club in North Beach. Since their inaugural event in 2012, BTTD has been one of the most successful fundraising nights and biggest parties of the year for Haight Ashbury Medical Clinics and HR360.
BTTD is an SF tradition benefitting thousands of low-income clients and people experiencing homelessness who turn to HR360 for non-judgmental, compassionate health care and social services.
Guests are encouraged to dress in their finest 1960s “groovy-elegant” attire This year HR360 will be paying homage to San Francisco, with the theme, “We LOVE San Francisco.” The evening will feature live music from a multitude of decades, a silent auction, tie-dye fashion show, specialty cocktails and mocktails, foods representing SF neighborhoods, and more groovy surprises along the way.
Sunshine Powers will be honored with a Community Visionary Award. An SF native, Sunshine discovered the wonder of Haight Street as a teenager and was a frequent visitor to Positively Haight Street, the shop at the corner of Haight and Masonic that she now owns, called Love on Haight. Sunshine seeks to “showcase the color, creativity, and consciousness that the Haight is historically known for.” Expanding her vision in 2022, Sunshine’s new enterprise, Colors of Love, serves as an educational training ground where women leaving incarceration learn the art of tie-dye and are given the opportunity to earn a living wage.
HR360 will also be honoring Eric Flowers with a Healthcare Visionary Award. Eric served on the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics’ board of directors and actively participated in negotiations that led to the merger of the Clinics and Walden House, creating HR360.
“This gala always means a great deal to me,” says Dr. David E. Smith, founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic in 1967. “HR360 is on the frontline of dealing with the worst drug epidemic in US history that is causing very serious medical, mental health, and addiction issues in SF. The Haight Ashbury is not the center of this as it was in the ‘60s, which doesn’t mean that the problem is solved, but I hope the Haight community continues to evolve. The Haight has been through this before. The community and businesses don’t want it to happen again. There’s a level of community involvement at that level.”
Sponsorships and auction items are still being sought for the BTTD, Contact Shabana Siegel at HR360 for more info: ssiegel@healthright360.org.
