New entertainment is at heart of fund-raiser

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Feb. 2, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

It's the biggest and most elegant night of the year for the American Heart Association.

The AHA will celebrate its largest annual fund-raiser, the 15th annual Heart of Gold Ball, Saturday at the Aladdin's Grand Ballroom in honor of Heart Month, as designated by the AHA.

For the first time in nearly 10 years, the AHA has changed its entertainment lineup of musicians who previously appeared at the ball. Also, Tim Boatman, a pianist at the Veranda restaurant at the Four Seasons, will make his debut as entertainment producer for the ball.

The black-tie affair is expected to raise more than $225,000 from a silent auction and an elegant $200-per-person dinner. (Reservations to attend the ball are required and may be made by calling the AHA at 367-1366.)

"I'm really excited because I get to play my songs and I get to be behind the scenes and bring all this wonderful music together to create a mood," Boatman, who is also a songwriter, said.

The 40-year-old Boatman learned to play the piano as a boy in DeQuincy, La. Two elderly ladies took the youngster's piano playing seriously and donated their upright piano to him so that he could hone his natural ability.

"I remember I was about 5 (years old), and there were these big Cajun men pushing that upright piano through the back door" of his family's home, Boatman said. "I was just overwhelmed."

He practiced his scales while in the company of his doting parents -- but alone, he embellished.

"I felt the music and it came through me and into what I was playing," Boatman said.

That magical feeling, he said, inspired him to compose. He has written, arranged and produced two albums, "Swells in Whitewater" in 1986 and "Grand Immersion" in 1995. He has a third, untitled compilation of original songs planned for release this summer.

Boatman has been involved with other local charities, but always onstage, never in the wings watching it happen.

"I like to produce, and this (event) has let me feel like a little kid again," he said. "I have taken nothing and built it into something."

His entertainment creation is intended to lure guests to the event. "It's been amazing to see how much money they've raised so far for this," he said.

The AHA had used the same entertainers for many years and Rose Blair, the event coordinator hired last year to plan and oversee the AHA's fund-raisers, decided the ball needed a change. "He's original and very talented," Blair said of Boatman. "We wanted to go in a whole new direction, and Tim (has) great ideas."

Also a singer, Boatman's classical, eclectic style caught Blair's attention at an AHA fund-raiser luncheon last summer. She pegged him as the man who could provide the gala with a fresh lineup of entertainment.

Boatman immediately agreed to the volunteer position. "They wanted a texture to the evening, so I went out and found talent that fits each part of the evening," he said. "The music will blend into the event throughout the night."

To start the fund-raiser Boatman chose musicians from Las Vegas' Cafe Nicole, Diahann Hall and Doug Taylor, to play because of their contemporary style. The duo will perform cover hits and provide background music while guests bid on auction items donated to the AHA. "They fit the proper attitude for the silent auction," Boatman said of the performers. "It's pleasant, mellow. It's not boring."

Classically trained acoustic guitarist Robert LeBlanc will whet diners' appetites during the four-course meal with the lilting sounds of Chopin and Beethoven.

After dinner Gruuv.com, a band that performs in the Allegro Lounge at the Bellagio, will pump up the mood with a mixture of dance and Top 40 hits to end the elegant evening on an upbeat note.

Throughout the evening Boatman will also perform some of his original compositions including "Angel" and "Kite Winds."

"There will be no time when the music doesn't enhance the mood," Boatman said.

Events such as the Heart of Gold Ball raise money that aids the local AHA affiliate in educating the community about heart health, said Vicki Sylvia, the executive director of the AHA's Las Vegas division.

Nationally AHA has achieved milestones with the aid of such fund-raisers. In 1961 Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation was invented and researched with support from the AHA affiliate in Maryland and money that the national organization raised.

Locally, funds were used recently to install in casinos life-saving Automatic Electronic Defibrillators, which can revive heart attack victims.

This year the local AHA would like to increase the number of AEDs at McCarran International Airport from the four presently in use there, Sylvia said, as well as add signs pointing to the life-saving devices.

"With an airport of that size, there should be more, and they should be (well) marked," she said.

Of the money to be raised at Saturday's ball, 35 percent is earmarked for research in the Southwest. The other 65 percent will be used for national research and programs.

Of the ball's long-term effects, Sylvia said, "It's a big deal."