"Garden of Eve" gala photos

The mood was green, glam and gay May 15 as more than 600 guests packed the eco award-winning, post-industrial chic Rancho Verde to support the Lesbian Community Care Program of Howard Brown Health Center. The venue, which provided plenty of space for cruising and schmoozing, was donated for the evening by Christy Webber Landscapes and honorary co-chairs Christy Webber and Jennifer Rule. The generous size and unusual layout of the facility allowed for multiple staging areas for live and DJ musical entertainment and an easy-to-navigate area for the silent auction as well as several performances that lent an air of carnival to the evening. The main event, however, was the food: sumptuous tastings donated by more than two dozen restaurateurs, boasting a wonderful variety of cuisines and libations.

Careful planning and a very successful sponsorship effort by event co-chairs Tamara Allen, Kat Fitzgerald, Dalila Fridi and Melissa Mansfield means that 100 percent of the revenue from ticket sales goes to support LCCP’s health and wellness programs for LBTQI women—including the free breast/chest exams, pap tests and mammograms available to uninsured and underinsured women.

Text by Micki Leventhal; photos by Kat Fitzgerald (http://MysticImagesPhotography.com), with many more at http://WindyCityTimes.com