Aspen Wildfire Foundationtion hosted an evening of Embers & Elegance at the downtown firehouse. Rick Balentine, fire chief and CEO of the Aspen Fire Protection District, welcomed guests for cocktails along with members of the Aspen Fire Department to launch the new Aspen Wildfire Foundation. Its goal as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization is to help fund wildfire preparedness and community education and outreach. The event’s activities included cocktails and rides given to guests in the firetrucks’ aerial lifts. Additionally, Robert Wagner and Jill St. John awarded philanthropist Jerry Hosier a Visionary Leadership Award during the fundraiser. Another attendee, Boogie Weinglass, and his wife, Gayle, who bought a wildland brush truck for the team last year, donated $100,000 to the nonprofit at the event, as did Hosier.
The evening was especially poignant, as the honor guard presented a wreath to commemorate 14 woodland firefighters who lost their lives in the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain, near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on July 6, 1994.
Local notables attending included Aspen Mayor Torre, Sheriff Michael Buglione, Holly Buglione, architect Charles Cunniffe, Robert and Marcie Musser, and photographer Andrea Booher, whose photo of the World Trade Center site hangs in Aspen’s firehouse.
Guests then walked to Aspen’s Caribou Club for dinner to conclude their evening.
Sponsors included Crestmont Investments and Purist magazine.
