By Joanne Davidson
The Denver Post
POSTED: 01/25/2011 01:00:00 AM MST
Bon Jovi performed Friday for the fifth anniversary of the Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation. ( Evan Semon, Special to The Denver Post )
The last time a Bon Jovi concert opened with a cover of the Dave Clark Five's "Glad All Over" may also have been the first.
It was a perfect choice, though, because the happy lyrics pretty much summed up the vibe at the Colorado Convention Center Friday night when 1,100 people turned out for a once-in-a-lifetime dinner and show that raised $1 million for CeDAR (Center for Dependency, Addiction and Rehabilitation), a 50-bed, nonprofit residential treatment facility next to the University of Colorado Hospital on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
It's not every day that a band of Bon Jovi's arena-filling stature does a gig like this, a fact that wasn't lost on the A-list crowd that included Gov. John Hickenlooper,
Phil Anschutz, football legend John Elway, University of Colorado president Bruce Benson and University Hospital chief Bruce Schroffel.
They — and others like Pete Coors, Anschutz Investment Co. president Steve Cohen, chef Troy Guard and Children's Hospital gastroenterologist Ron Sokol — seemed to be grinning from ear to ear all night long.
In the end, it was hard to tell who was having the most fun: the planners or the guests who paid anywhere from $2,500 to $50,000 per table of 10.
"We have worked so hard to make CeDAR a world-class facility, and to have an event like this as our first fundraiser is marvelous ... exciting beyond words," enthused CeDAR's executive director, Frank Lisnow.
Improv comedian Amy Angelilli, whose alter ego, Nurse Nancy, has gained local notoriety for a series of public service announcements promoting spay and neuter for cats, is such a devoted fan of Bon Jovi that she sold two rings to be able to afford a ticket to what she described as "an amazingly special special charity event."
And, of course, whenever there's a visiting celebrity, there's always a local connection.
Michael Bugdanowitz, son of Rose Community Foundation president Sheila Bugdanowitz and her husband, Rick, owner of La Nouvelle Fine Cleaners, is a friend of band frontman Jon Bon Jovi. "They live near each other in New Jersey and their kids go to the same preschool," Rick Bugdanowitz explained. "Michael rode in on the plane with them today, and we're not sure if he's going to come home with us tonight or be with the band."
The benefit would not have been possible without a big assist from Phil Anschutz's AEG Live Rocky Mountains and its president, Chuck Morris,who not only got Bon Jovi to appear but talked a lot of his friends into donating items for the silent auction — good stuff like guitars signed by Tom
Petty and Melissa Etheridge and VIP tickets to Celine Dion, George Strait and Reba McEntire shows.
Two hundred CeDAR graduates were there, too, including Don Boodel, one of the McDonald's franchisees who established the Ronald McDonald Houses in Denver and Aurora. "I am proud to say I'm a CeDAR graduate," Boodel said. "It's a marvelous facility, and was my bedrock for rebuilding my soul and my sobriety."
Others enjoying this fun event were Sharon Magness Blake and Ernie Blake; Dan Ritchie; Deanna and Greg Austin; Nan and Spike Eklund; Ann Butler and Don Greco; Dianne Eddolls and Glenn Jones; Four Seasons Hotel GM Thierry Kennel and his wife,
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