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Hope & Triumph

Hope & Triumph

Damian Calmett offers endless inspiration at DAP Health and beyond 

Words by Greg Archer • Photo by Zach Ivey • Creative Director Snap Studios Ryan Auble

As the sun shines vibrantly outside DAP Health, inside the main building, things are just as bright. That’s because Damian Calmett is waiting to greet people as they arrive. The cheery 73-year-old resident of Vista Sunrise, DAP Health’s affordable housing complex, is full of wide-eyed optimism. Clearly, the man loves being the organization’s chief greeter and safety monitor. On any given day, Calmett helps people find their way around, and even offers compassion or bits of life wisdom from time to time. 

A ray of sunshine? That’s Damian Calmett.

“What’s important to remember is that DAP Health is a place where people come at various levels of their health,” he says. “You may be the only light somebody sees that day, or the only person they encounter because many people are shut-ins. So, if you can make their day a little lighter for five minutes, great. Then you’ve done a wonderful service.”

Calmett knows about the “light.” Because he’s spent a lot of time emerging from the dark. The multi-faceted yet unpretentious soul is somebody you’d want to know, and he swims deep emotional waters, waxing philosophical with ease: “I believe within each of us is a homing device that is good; we were born with it, and it leads us to a power bigger than us.” 

In the next breath, he may be brutally honest about his own journey: “I’m no stranger to homelessness, hopelessness, or hope, either. Or saying, ‘What is the lesson in this for me?’ Rather than, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ So, when I see people come into DAP Health, for me, it’s an opportunity to give hope.”

Calmett knows a lot about that. He had to rely on hope — even when he lost all signs of it — before he came on board at DAP Health in September 2021. And that’s where Calmett’s life story — a tale of heartbreak and triumph — becomes even more fascinating to explore. 

Damian Calmett was born Stephen Bruce Ford in Salinas, California on January 30, 1950. Several days after his birth, the child’s mother left him, and he went to live with his paternal grandparents in nearby Castroville. Calmett says he got “saved” at their church when he was 2. Then his mother returned and took him back with her to Los Angeles, where they moved into a trailer with a man she’d been seeing, Willie. 

“He was rough and tough, a ‘man’s man,’” Calmett shares. “What Willie said, you did. I was only 2 or 3 at the time, and more than anything, I thought I was going to die because he often waved a gun around and was drunk and acted like a crazy man.” 

Calmett’s mother worked at a nearby bar. One time, when she wasn’t home, Willie “put the gun [with one bullet] in my rectum and proceeded to pull the trigger. I was terrified and probably also in shock. He had been abusive before, and each time the abuse got worse.”

What followed was a nightmarish labyrinth for any human to walk through. When Willie left for good, Calmett’s mother didn’t hang around much longer, and the child was tossed around from home to home.

First, there was Shirley and her husband, and their four children, in a single-wide trailer, where, Calmett says, “we ate hot dogs every day for almost three months, and I slept in the hall closet.” When the family abandoned him, he spent three days alone — or three weeks, he cannot remember — until a man name George, who frequented the bar where Calmett’s mother worked, arrived with his wife. The couple took the boy with them to Grants Pass, Oregon, but Calmett had shut down emotionally and quit speaking. He was given a new name, George Jr., but something ominous always lurked in the shadows.

George drank and always fought with his wife. When he disappeared, Calmett was taken in by the couple’s friends and was given yet another name — Richard. Eventually, he went to live with his maternal grandmother, Mary, and her husband Earl, in Compton, California. Earl was a gunslinger, which brought up disturbing memories of Willie. Somewhere in between, Calmett had to learn how to speak again, and when his paternal grandparents found him, he returned to Castroville, shaken, distraught, and full of trust issues.

“As long as I can remember, I always wanted to be someone else,” Calmett once shared. “I have never been comfortable in my own skin.”

Then fate stepped in… 

Years later, having coped and dealt with tremendous psychological maelstroms, Calmett was asked to be one of the Gospel singers at an Oakland concert. Inspired by the performers, he found something that had been missing — himself. Could he, in fact, be as free-spirited as some of the entertainers around him? Something shifted within. Calmett legally changed his name to Damian — just Damian — and went on to perform worldwide in several mediums, hope and perseverance becoming major throughlines in his life. 

Inspired to delve inward, he attended Oral Roberts University and at times, sang as a soloist on Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s “The PTL Club.” “I knew Tammy Faye,” he recalls. “She was genuinely naïve, and her eyes were full of love. But those long lashes were simply her armor against people getting close to her.” 

When he took a position as associate pastor at a Southern California church, pressure mounted — all the other pastors had wives. The writing was on the wall. “My marriage to my wife, Kathy, was more or less an arranged marriage. I hosted a television program called ‘This Is Your Life,’ and Kathy’s parents saw me on TV and drove 100 miles to meet me.”

That was around 1985. Eventually, Calmett left the church — and his marriage to Kathy — and moved to San Diego’s Hillcrest area. “I had difficulty fitting into the gay world,” he admits. “Things were awkward for me. I was about 34, and I didn’t get why the leather guys didn’t want to associate with the drag queens, the bears, otters, lipstick lesbians, and dykes. For a community claiming to be so inclusive, well, it was anything but.”

One Halloween, he dressed in girls’ clothes. “I felt pretty and got attention,” he says, adding, “I never felt handsome as a man. As strange as it might sound, there was a sense of realness I felt [dressing up]. It was natural for me. In 1992, I had three titles — Mayor of Hillcrest, Mr. Gay San Diego, and Miss Gay San Diego.”

A stronger sense of self emerged. So did another personality: Ivana. 

“For so long, I was just ‘Ivana,’” Calmett says of his famous alter ego. “I opened for Joan Rivers once, and let’s just say I drank a bit too much that night. Joan said, ‘Ivana, you’re just a tramp! Ivana Tramp. That’s who you are.’ The name stuck. I saw a different part of myself. Nobody ever referred to her [Ivana] as a drag performer, or as an impersonator. She was just who she was.”

Calmett performed as Ivana Tramp for nearly 20 years — from the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel in Las Vegas to the MGM Grand Sanya in China, and then some. “I realized that I’m more than one person,” he reflects.

Through the years, Calmett lived in Palm Springs several times, but when he returned to the Coachella Valley more than three years ago, he brought with him decades of life experience. He’d become an alcohol and drug counselor, and was a sober-living manager at one point. He also remarried between Ivana Tramp and Palm Springs, taking on the surname of his husband, David Calmett. Their marriage lasted about seven years. “Relationships aren’t the thing that I do best,” he says.

Still, Calmett used his latest move to Palm Springs to fuel a burning need: to instill hope. In addition to overseeing the welcome desk at DAP Health, he manages a 20–25 volunteer staff and makes sure everyone is trained on how to be “welcoming.” While he’s been a minister for many years, he recently became an Innerfaith minister. As Rev. Damian Calmett, he inspires hundreds of thousands online, and oversees a congregation at Innerfaith New Thought Spiritual Center Palm Springs. He says he’s ready to embrace what lies ahead, too, keeping in mind how he can best “serve.”

When asked what got him through the tough times, Calmett is candid: “We can either choose to go through challenges or grow through them. You don’t evolve, you unfold.

“I’ve had 10 lifetimes full of experiences,” he quickly adds. “I’ve met and worked with famous people. And I’ve met and worked with people who were in the gutter. These are all the same people. People are just people. I’m a survivor. So, I do what it takes to put one foot on the ground and the other foot forward … and just keep going.”

Learn more about Damian Calmett at damiancalmett.tv.

DAP Health Continues to Fight for LGBTQ+ …

DAP Health Continues to Fight for LGBTQ+ Health Equity

 At the 2023 Greater Palm Springs Pride Festival, the organization will celebrate its long history of championing health care access for the queer community.

As it has done since the first Greater Palm Springs Pride in 1986, DAP Health will raise its rainbow flags high in the air and proudly participate in the 37th annual iteration of the event, to be held November 2 to 5.

With the recent integration of Borrego Health, DAP Health’s team now consists of 850 dedicated health care professionals serving 100,000 diverse patients in 240 of Southern California’s rural and urban zip codes, from the Salton Sea to San Diego.

In addition to hosting its DAP Health Wellness Pavilion along Palm Canyon Drive (directly across the street from Lulu California Bistro) — from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 4 and from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 5 — more than a hundred of the organization’s employees, patients, donors, volunteers, board members, and other supporters are expected to march shoulder to shoulder in the Sunday morning Pride Parade.

“Participating in Greater Palm Springs Pride is always a personal highlight of the fall season, not just for me, but for everyone who calls DAP Health home in one fashion or another,” says longtime CEO David Brinkman. “At DAP Health, we have always fought for the LGBTQ+ community, championing health care access for nearly four decades. Our acquisition of Borrego Health hasn’t weakened our commitment; it’s fortified our resolve.

“With our expanded size and reach, we pack a mightier punch in our quest for health care justice. Our unified voice, advocating for our communities alongside elected officials, is now louder than ever, and our team of dedicated care providers has grown threefold. We believe health care should know no boundaries. Our goal is to continue to honor the memory of those lost to HIV/AIDS by removing barriers, and by creating a more just world through equitable access.”

Employees from the nonprofit’s 25 clinics will carry signs emblazoned with the name of their home location. Others will carry placards sporting such slogans as “Mental Health is Health Care,” “LGBTQ+ Care is Health Care,” and “Drag is Love” (the catchphrase printed on DAP Health’s official 2023 Pride Parade T-shirt).

Riding in a vehicle just ahead of the group will be Donald Beck, one of the founders of Desert AIDS Project (as the nonprofit was originally known) who is this year’s recipient of Greater Palm Springs Pride’s Spirit of Stonewall Lifetime Achievement Award.

Loudly announcing DAP Health’s presence will be a large assortment of blue/robin’s egg, purple/lavender, and orange/red balloons respectively spelling out the D-A-P of the organization’s acronym and hoisted high above a banner that will read “Together for Better Health,” a nod to DAP Health recently absorbing the Borrego Health system.

Also part of the DAP Health delegation, riding in a vintage convertible in glorious full drag, will be Les Dames du Soleil Dottie & Maude (AKA Douglas Woodmansee and Marshall Pearcy). The tribute is designed to honor the longtime married couple of entertainers — who were at the forefront of early HIV/AIDS efforts, raising much-needed funds for DAP at the dawn of the epidemic, when other resources and supporters were scarce — for their vital role in DAP Health’s history of LGBTQ+ activism.

“Long before our community had the economic and political strength we now proudly possess, before the emergence of LGBTQ+ advocacy or health care organizations, drag queens were tirelessly raising funds for our cause, one dollar at a time,” says DAP Health Chief of Brand Marketing Steven Henke. “They courageously championed our rights and well-being until we found the strength to fight for ourselves. We should never forget the legacy they forged in high heels.”

As for the Wellness Pavilion, it will be staffed with employees and volunteers from DAP Health’s community health department, who will be providing full, free sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, harm reduction services, and general outreach. Representatives will also be talking with attendees about the free pregnancy testing and birth control consultations now available at its sexual wellness clinics.

The Pavilion will also be home to a Recovery Oasis, where revelers can pick up information about DAP Health’s host of recovery services, including various meetings and its Outpatient Drug-Free (ODF ) program.

DAP Health Announces Date For Its 2023 H …

DAP Health Announces Date For Its 2023 Health Equity Walk

 

The popular event, formerly known as the Desert AIDS Walk, kicks off at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 28

at Ruth Hardy Park in Palm Springs.

 

Consistent with DAP Health’s almost 40-year history of protecting and expanding access to health care, the organization has renamed its perennially popular Desert AIDS Walk the DAP Health Equity Walk as an affirmation of its mission to remove all barriers to care.

Presented by Desert Care Network, the event will take place throughout Palm Springs — kicking off from Ruth Hardy Park at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 28 — and will feature a Health & Wellness Village sponsored by Walgreens.

The pet- and kid-friendly affair is an opportunity for all residents across the Coachella Valley to walk out loud so that every member of the community — regardless of who or where they are — can achieve optimal health in a more just system.

“When we were founded as Desert AIDS Project almost 40 years ago, there were no HIV medications, advocacy was in its infancy, and the prognosis for those sickened by the disease was inevitably grim,” says DAP Health CEO David Brinkman. “Four decades later, our work to end HIV continues through prevention and education, but our measurable successes have enabled us to also create a unique patient-centered model of care we can replicate in other marginalized communities, removing barriers for those who need it most. Honoring our past to create health equity is part of our history and how we plan to continue making history for decades to come.”

With the recent acquisition of the Borrego Health system, a total of more than 100,000 patients of all populations, genders, and ages — from newborns to seniors — at a total of 25 Southern California clinics located within 240 rural and urban zip codes from the Salton Sea to San Diego now fall under DAP Health’s protective umbrella of care.

“Because DAP Health now works on behalf of such a large swath of individuals, it makes sense to broaden our walk’s mission to reflect the totality of our patient population,” continues Brinkman. “While compassionate, state-of-the-art HIV care and prevention is in our organization’s DNA, and will forever be at the heart of our work, the truth is that today, our lifesaving efforts are carried out on behalf of everyone in disciplines that include primary care, OB-GYN, pediatrics, gender affirmation, mental health, harm reduction, and recovery, to name but seven. The walk, one of our biggest annual fundraisers, is now representative of the incredible diversity of services we offer.”

Participants and supporters of the 2023 DAP Health Equity Walk are being asked to do the following:

Walk Out Loud to End HIV. HIV/AIDS care, testing, and prevention have always been at the heart of DAP Health’s mission, and that simple fact will never change. The organization’s clinical expertise has been hard-won from its vast experience, and is what has enabled it to expand as it has. 

Walk Out Loud For LGBTQ+ Care. Every stripe of the rainbow, including those seeking gender-affirming care, have continually found a safe haven here, free of shame and stigma.

Walk Out Loud For Women’s Health. The recent acquisition of the Borrego Health system has brought a multitude of clinics that serve women (and their children) into the DAP Health fold. The nonprofit is very proud to now boast robust OB-GYN and pediatric services, among many others.

Walk Out Loud to End Epidemics. This has forever been DAP Health’s superpower, with the organization swiftly and successfully addressing a number of community health crises. For instance, its on-campus COVID-19 clinic was the first to open in the Coachella Valley, and the agency successfully lobbied the powers that be for the community’s fair share of the much-needed mpox vaccine.

Walk Out Loud For Mental Health. Thanks to the 2022 opening of the Marc Byrd Behavioral Health Clinic — which offers in-person and telehealth individual psychotherapy, as well as medication management — this long-held DAP Health dream is now a reality.  

Walk Out Loud to Care For Everyone. Health equity means all people have the same access to health care, no matter what social determinants of health negatively impact them. At DAP Health, everyone is welcome, with no one ever turned away due to their lack of health insurance.

Of note, the Ryan White Western Regions Provider Meeting — which brings together nearly 50 peers who specialize in HIV care, and who receive the Ryan White Western Regions Provider Meeting — which brings together nearly 50 peers who specialize in HIV care, and who receive Ryan White Part C and Part D funding — will take place October 26 and 27 in Palm Springs. At the event, these like-minded colleagues, from Denver to Hawaii, will share best practices to improve the quality of care and services they provide to their patients.

healthequitywalk.org

Dining Out For Life 2023 Another Smashin …

Dining Out For Life 2023 Another Smashing Success

DAP Health, restaurateurs, sponsors, volunteers, and diners in Greater Palm Springs work together to raise more than $270,000

On the triple-digit-hot day that was Thursday, April 27, some 12,000 local foodie philanthropists chose to keep cool by showing their community pride and participating in Dining Out For Life® at breakfast, lunch, happy hour, dinner, and late-night. And “cool” they indeed all were, sporting the badges of honor — those meaningful, orange and yellow “I Dined” lapel stickers — they earned by joining in a great cause on behalf of DAP Health. A total of more than $270,000 was raised in Greater Palm Springs, making this one of the best showings ever for the Coachella Valley.

DOFL is the annual, North America-wide gastronomic fundraising event that has not only collected more than $100 million for community-based HIV/AIDS service organizations since its inception in 1991, but perennially encourages those who may not know their HIV status to get tested so that they may be connected to the care they need to thrive.

Every year since 2005 (save for 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 derailed best-laid plans), Greater Palm Springs has participated in the all-day/all-night affair during which the owners of many Coachella Valley restaurants, bars, cafés, and bakeries donate anywhere from 30 to 110% of their entire day and evening’s receipts — not just the profits — to the popular effort.

Each year, Greater Palm Springs not only joins more than 50 local nonprofits that partner with “2,400+ participating restaurants, 4,100+ volunteers, and 300,000+ diners to raise over $4.5 million for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States and Canada,” per DOFL National’s website, but makes a rather valiant individual showing. In 2022, 68 desert restaurants participated to raise $207,000 — more than San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and other large urban centers — to make ours the second-most-successful market on the continent.

Number one was Denver. But since our Indio-Cathedral City-Palm Springs 2022 metro population came in at 487,000 — versus the winning city’s nearly 3 million — it’s clear that, when a per capita perspective is taken, Palm Springs actually was number one in community pride and generosity.

For 2023, with 72 establishments participating, every effort was made for DOFLGPS to officially take that top spot by encouraging diners to make more than one meal matter. Until all the beans are counted, we’ll patiently wait to find out if we succeeded in that goal. Either way, the day and night were smashing successes, with an inaugural Arenas Bar Crawl held the night before — at Blackbook, Chill Bar Palm Springs, Dick’s on Arenas, Hunters Nightclub, QuadZ Video Bar, and Streetbar Palm Springs — shedding an additional spotlight on the culinary benefit.

“FARM has been participating in DOFL since Mark and I took over [in 2017],” says Liz Ostoich, a power restaurateur who, with her husband, owns a total of four eateries. “Tac/Quila started participating just a few days after opening in 2019. That was brave, but we pulled it off. The Front Porch and Clandestino opened last fall, so this [was] their first year.” And why is being part of the fun so important to Liz and Mark? “We believe that being part of a community means investing in people, lifestyle, and infrastructure,” she continues. “DAP Health is an easy choice for investment, as this important organization cares about the whole of the person, meeting our residents where they are, and providing comprehensive health care wrapped in grace and compassion.”

“In the ’80s and ’90s, I lost two brothers and too many friends to HIV/AIDS,” says Palm Springs power diner Melissa Lundgren, who has dined out for life for the last 12 years — first in Nashville, and here for the last five years. As usual, in 2023, Lundgren spread the word high and low among family, friends, and co-workers, urging everyone to get their head in the game. “I so appreciate all of the AIDS service organizations that have worked so hard to get us to this point where the disease is no longer a death sentence. I will continue to dine out for life until there is a cure.”

“At its heart, Dining Out For Life is a win-win community event where people get together with friends to feast for the greater good,” has said DAP Health CEO David Brinkman. “Each year, I’m awestruck not only by the generosity of our participating restaurateurs, but by the enthusiasm and pride of our deeply committed desert dwellers. What a genius way to have fun while giving back.”

Naturally, DOFLGPS would not be the smashing success it always is without the generous support of sponsors such as Gilead, and Steve Tobin and Johnny Krupa of the Grace Helen Spearman Charitable Foundation.

 

2023 Dining Out For Life Greater Palm Springs Participating Eateries

533 Viet Fusion

1501 Uptown Gastropub

Al dente Trattoria Toscana

Aspen Mills Bakery & Cafe

Barracks Bar

Bar Cecil

Birba

Blackbook

Bongo Johnny’s

Boozehounds

Carousel Bakery

Chef Tanya’s Kitchen (Palm Spring)

Chef Tanya’s Kitchen (Palm Desert)

Chicken Ranch

Chill Bar Palm Springs

Clandestino

Coachella Valley Coffee

Copley’s on Palm Canyon

Cork & Fork

Cowboy Cantina

Del Rey at Villa Royale

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit

Dicks on Arenas

EIGHT4NiNE Restaurant & lounge

El Mirasol at Los Arboles

El Mirasol Cocina Mexicana

Elmer’s Restaurant

El Patio

FARM

4 Saints

Gelato Granucci

Grand Central Palm Springs

Heirloom Craft Kitchen

Hunter’s Nightclubs of Palm Springs

Ice Cream & Shop(pe)

I Heart Mac and Cheese

Impala Bar & Grill PSP

Jake’s

Johannes

Johnny Costa’s Ristorante

Kaiser Grille

King’s Highway

Loco Charlies Mexican Grill

Le Donne Cucina Italiana

Lulu California Bistro

MidMod Cafe

Mr. Lyons

Nature’s Health Food & Cafe

On The Mark

Palm Greens Cafe

Purple Room

Quadz Palm Springs

Reforma

RUNWAY Bar & Restaurant

Shame on the Moon

Sherman’s Deli & Bakery

So-Pa at L’Horizon

Spencer’s Restaurant

Street Bar

Tac/Quila

Tailor Shop

The Barn Kitchen at Sparrow’s Lodge

The Front Porch

The Pantry at Holiday House

The Penney

The Tropicale Restaurant & Lounge

Townie Bagels

Trio Restaurant

Tu Madres Cantina & Grill

Willie’s Modern Fare

Wilma & Frida’s Palm Springs

Zin American Bistro

pairs (kerning).

The Chase 2023 – Big Ideas Build a …

The Chase 2023: Big Ideas Build a Legacy of Compassionate Care

Words by Barbara Kerr

 

Health equity is health care.

That visionary theme echoed across the Palm Springs Convention Center on March 25, as nearly 1,000 guests gathered for 2023’s The Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards (AKA The Chase), the annual gala and fundraiser — presented this year by Eisenhower Health — that has raised millions of dollars to support DAP Health and the people it serves.

From platinum sponsor Amazon’s Big Ideas Cocktail Party inside the convention center to the vibrant celebration in the outdoor plaza, gala co-chairs and DAP Health Board Members Kevin Bass, Lauri Kibby, and Scott Nevins created an evening to “inspire guests to think more boldly about the future of wellness throughout the Coachella Valley.”

The vision resonated in the humor and energy of Obie, Drama Desk, and Lucille Lortel Award winner Michael Urie (of the current Apple TV+ hit series “Shrinking”), returning for his second year as emcee, and in the dynamic headlining performance of Emmy and Golden Globe winner Darren Criss (of “Glee” and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” TV fame).

Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk and Obie winner Saycon Sengbloh opened the evening with a stirring performance of “Rise Up.” Broadway and television performer Nick Adams inspired the crowd by reminding them that “This Is the Moment.”

When We See Lack, We Act

Throughout the evening, speakers noted the striking parallels between the challenges of 1984, when the organization originally known as Desert AIDS Project was founded, and the issues facing DAP Health, the region, and the country today.

DAP Health CEO David Brinkman said, “Despite our immense progress over the last 39 years, 2023 feels a helluva lot like 1984. There are currently 300 anti-LGBTQ bills in various stages of passage in this country — many of them attempting to prevent trans youth from living authentically.”

He then noted: “Of our 50 states, 35 restrict abortion to varying degrees, robbing women of the right to make decisions affecting their own body. And in our own back yard, 120,000 patients dependent on the Borrego Health system were on the verge of losing their access to health care.”

But, he added, “When we see lack, we act. It’s in our DNA. So DAP Health is again stepping up — forming an alliance with fellow health centers Innercare and Neighborhood Healthcare — to guarantee lifesaving continued access by acquiring Borrego Health.”

The new alliance will provide health care for 120,000 men, women, and children. From San Diego to the Salton Sea, 600 physicians and staff will care for patients in disciplines from obstetrics and gerontology to HIV prevention and treatment.

Honoring Visionary Partners

A leader in the fashion industry’s fight against HIV/AIDS, design icon and philanthropist Donna Karan was the recipient of the 2023 DAP Health Equity Award. She is the founder of Urban Zen, a lifestyle brand and philanthropic foundation that collaborates with existing organizations to enhance spiritual, emotional, and physical growth.

“Nobody gets away without being sick,” Karan said, accepting the award. “Each and every one of us will be that person one day. The question is: Who’s going to take care of us?” She added: “Those people who care for us are the most important people in the world. We need the ‘care’ in health care. And this organization understands that.”

Dr. Raul Ruiz, the U.S. Representative for California’s 25th District, presented the 2023 DAP Health Humanitarian Award to Desert Healthcare District & Foundation CEO Dr. Conrado E. Bárzaga and the organization’s board of directors. He praised Dr. Bárzaga for his “innovative thinking and inspiring leadership.”

Ruiz told The Chase audience: “Dr. Bárzaga believes health care requires thinking outside the box. He believes in taking a patient-centered approach to address the social determinants of health and to create 21st-century solutions for 21st-century problems.”

Dr. Bárzaga praised DAP Health for “advancing the notion that health care is not only human care, but a human right.” He then noted that “DAP implemented a wonderful equity framework when no one knew what equity was.” Finally, he observed, “Equity in health care is giving everyone a fair chance at being healthy, and we do this by removing barriers. By making access to health care possible. Because this is what DAP Health does and that is what we at the Desert Healthcare District are doing.”

As Dr. Bárzaga reminded the audience: “We are working to dismantle systems that have neglected the people upon whose backs the wealth of the Coachella Valley is created. We are working toward building a health care infrastructure and a health care workforce that are inclusive. That uplift those who have historically been at a disadvantage: the sexual, racial, and ethnic minorities. We are working toward a Coachella Valley we all can call home — not because we are included — but because we belong.”

Health Care Is...

“There are so many factors that affect a person’s health — starting with housing, mental health, food insecurity,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of presenting sponsor Eisenhower Health Ken Wheat. “DAP Health has been and continues to be critical to our community in addressing health care on all of these levels.”

Gala Co-Chair and DAP Health Board Member Scott Nevins noted he is also a patient at DAP Health. “When I was in my 20s, living in New York City, just starting out in show business, I couldn’t afford health insurance, and my options for health care were free clinics and programs that were often bleak and unsettling,” he said. “So, when I discovered DAP Health, and saw firsthand the quality of the services that were provided within an inviting, friendly, and stigma-free environment, I felt like I was home.”

A Life-changing Journey

Born in El Salvador, Marcela Quintanilla was raised in Palm Springs. Being gay, she said, “It was hard to fit in.” She added: “I did not know how to deal with it, how to cope with life. I found drugs and alcohol. And it really, really took me into a deep, dark place.”

A friend told her about DAP Health. “He told me that you will get help and not be judged,” she said. At DAP Health, she found support and a new life. “I attended the substance abuse groups that really set the ground for my recovery.” Quintanilla also received treatment for HIV, and attended substance abuse groups. DAP Health staff members helped her obtain food vouchers and medical insurance.

And they helped her through her transition.

“I think they saw the real person in me, and they really wanted me to be happy,” she said. “They wanted me to be who I always wanted to be.”

Today, with a growing career as a hairdresser, she says she has a good life. “It was because a lot of people believed in me,” she said.

Turning a Mess Into a Message

Damian Calmett is also a patient at DAP Health. A former entertainer — “a gorgeous girl with wigs and lashes, singing in clubs” — he once upon a time helped raise money for Desert AIDS Project.

“I had hidden the fact that I was HIV-positive for almost three decades,” he told The Chase guests. “I kept that a secret because of the shame, the stigma. When I came to DAP Health, I had spiraled out of control. I was homeless. I had lost everything. But because of the compassionate care, I was able to take a mess and turn it into a message of hope, a message of strength.

Today, he is Rev. Dr. Damian Calmett, senior minister of Innerfaith Ministries Worldwide, located in Palm Springs. He is also the front desk coordinator at DAP Health. “I want people to know that they’re valuable,” he said. “That when you walk in the doors, you are important.” He added: “When I touch somebody and their life has changed — and they’re able to turn their life around — you’re the ones that have been able to do that because you invested in me.”

The experiences of Quintanilla and Calmett reminded guests this was the moment to demonstrate their belief in supporting life-changing journeys.

The Chase 2023 raised $1.4 million to invest in DAP Health and its clients.

Community With a Capital C

DAP Health CEO David Brinkman has noted that “I work with so many people who were not born and raised in this community, and came here from larger towns, and one of the things they really cherish is the small size of this community and how, when we all work together, we can solve social issues.”

As he told the audience at The Chase 2023, “You are very special to all of us at DAP Health, and particularly to the thousands of people we care for. Because without you, there would be no Chase. Without you, there would be no DAP Health. This organization is — always has been, and always will be — very much about community with a capital C.”

He added: “You’ve shown us your heart and your commitment. No matter the call, you step forward when you hear it. No matter who’s being targeted, scapegoated, left behind, or denied, you shout: ‘Not in my community!’”

Brinkman reminded guests that everyone is welcome at DAP Health.

“We know that y’all means all,” he said. “We know that women’s rights are not negotiable. We know that Black lives matter. And we say gay!”

“Quite simply,” he concluded, “we firmly believe no one is disposable in our community.”

And he thanked the crowd for their unwavering support. “When you give to DAP Health, you give not only to this community, but to yourself,” he said. “Because you are this community. And, as a thriving member of it, taking care of your neighbor is in your DNA as well.”

Thanks with a Capital T

The Chase 2023 was made possible through the generous support of presenting sponsor Eisenhower Health, platinum sponsor Amazon, Bobbi Lampros, AEG, Desert Care Network, The Desert Sun/Local IQ, DAP Health Board Chair Patrick Jordan, Barry Manilow and Garry Kief, Harold Matzner, NBC Palm Springs, and Steve Tobin and Johnny Krupa of the Grace Helen Spearman Charitable Foundation.

Brad and Lynne Toles of Savoury’s, alongside their kitchen and front-of-house staff, provided the delicious food, beverages, and service. DJ Modgirl (aka Kellee McQuinn) amped up the excitement at the Big Ideas Cocktail Party and the afterparty.

The Chase 2023 was Proudly Sponsored by:

Dine Out For Life to End HIV on April 27

It’s Time to Dine Out For Life on Behalf of DAP Health on April 27

Dining Out For Life® — the annual, North American gastronomic fundraising event that has collected more than 100 million dollars for community-based organizations that serve people living with or impacted by HIV since its inception in 1991 — will take place in Palm Springs and across the Coachella Valley on Thursday, April 27, 2023.

Every year since 2005 — save for 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 derailed best-laid plans — Greater Palm Springs has participated in the all-day/all-night affair on behalf of DAP Health. And on each of those occasions, locals, snowbirds, and even tourists have swelled with pride and come out with a vengeance to earn much-needed monies while enjoying the generosity of participating local restaurants, bars, and bakeries that donate anywhere from 30 to 110% of their entire day and evening’s receipts — not just the profits — to the popular effort.

Thanks to the benevolent support of participating restaurants, volunteers, and community members, Greater Palm Springs has grown to become the second-most-successful market in the country. In 2022, 68 desert restaurants participated to raise $207,000 — more than San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and other large urban centers. In fact, the desert — with its Indio-Cathedral City-Palm Springs 2022 metro population of 487,000 — came in second only to Denver, whose current population is almost 3 million!

With more than 12,000 local bighearted gourmands expected to dine out for life at breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner this year, the 2023 goal is for Dining Out For Life Greater Palm Springs to grab the number one spot.

Eager participants are urged to visit daphealth.org/dofl, make reservations well in advance, and prepare to sate their hunger and thirst three times or more on April 27 to beat the North American record right here in our back yard. If their favorite breakfast, lunch, or dinner spot hasn’t yet made its participation public, diners should speak up and urge the powers that be to sign up ASAP.

The umbrella organization’s website states that each year, “more than 50 local HIV service organizations partner with 2,400+ participating restaurants, 4,100+ volunteers, and 300,000+ diners to raise over $4.5 million for people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States and Canada. The best part? All funds raised through a city’s Dining Out For Life event stay in that city to provide help and hope to people living with or impacted by HIV/AIDS.”

“At its heart, Dining Out For Life is a win-win community event where people get together with friends to feast for the greater good,” says DAP Health CEO David Brinkman. “Each year, I’m awestruck not only by the generosity of our participating restaurateurs, but by the enthusiasm and pride of our deeply committed desert dwellers. What a genius way to have fun while giving back.”

To register as a Dining Out For Life in-restaurant volunteer ambassador on April 27 — or to sign on as a participating establishment — please contact Avery Bell at abell@daphealth.org or 760.992.0441, or Bruce Benning at bbenning@daphealth.org or 760.320.7854.

Why DAP Health

Today, thousands of our friends and neighbors have no access to health care. Together, likeminded philanthropists of all stripes can change that by joining the nonprofit’s mission to create a healthier tomorrow by giving a voice to the often forgotten and by making sure none of us ever forgets that health care is not only human care, but a human right.

About DAP Health

Founded in 1984 by a group of community volunteers, DAP Health is an internationally renowned humanitarian health care organization and federally qualified health center (FQHC). In 2012, the nonprofit expanded its scope to care for all people.

Thanks to nearly 40 years of caring for people both directly and indirectly affected not only by the HIV/AIDS epidemic but by various other public health emergencies, DAP Health has the physical and intellectual resources, the desire, and — most importantly — the imagination to effect even greater positive change in the desert and beyond.

The next epidemic hasn’t surfaced — yet. But just as DAP Health met earlier community health crises decisively and successfully, its experts stand at the ready.

Vision Forward

DAP Health currently serves more than 10,000 patients annually, and every month, more than 100 new patients walk through its doors seeking comprehensive, quality health care. Clearly, there is unmet need.

Vision Forward is DAP Health’s 10-year strategic plan that will see the nonprofit grow to serve 25,000 patients a year at its main Palm Springs campus by 2025 thanks to expanded medical, dental, and mental health clinics and a new affordable housing complex that will add 60 units at Vista Sunrise II to the existing 81 units at Vista Sunrise. Grand total: 141.

The future of health care is holistic, innovative, agile, collaborative — and above all — patient-centric. DAP Health puts humanity back into health care. It meets community members where they are. It seeks out and lifts up allies for the betterment of all.

HIV/AIDS at DAP Health

Despite its substantial growth, HIV/AIDS care remains a cornerstone of DAP Health. Today, the nonprofit continues to:

  • Offer free onsite and mobile HIV and STI testing, including the mailing of at-home HIV tests to those unable to access its main Palm Springs campus.
  • Link people newly diagnosed with HIV to care — and help them remain in care — so that they can be undetectable, therefore unable to transfer the virus to others (U=U). 
  • Provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). 

2022 Community Impact

  • 32,496 HIV tests administered at the main campus and in the mobile clinic
  •    1,062 HIV self-test kits mailed to homes 
  •          75 patients welcomed into HIV care immediately after testing positive 
  •        130 people resumed antiretroviral treatment (ART) after lapses
  •        639 patients accessed PrEP for the first time
  • 35,000 condoms made available through DAP Health’s Condom Club 

Health care is...

Advocacy • Cultural Competency • Dental Care • Ending Epidemics • Equitable Access

Food Assistance • Gender-affirming Care • Harm Reduction • HIV Care • Housing

LGBTQ+ Health • Mental Health • Mobile Health Care • Primary Care • Recovery

Sexual Health • Social Services • Women’s Health

DAP Health... is health care.

Participating Restaurants at Press Time

 533 Viet Fusion

1501 Uptown Gastropub

Alcazar

Aspen Mills Bakery & Café

Birba

Blackbook

Chicken Ranch

Clandestino

Coachella Valley Coffee

Eight4Nine Restaurant & Lounge

El Mirasol at Los Arboles Hotel

El Mirasol Cocina Mexicana

El Patio Palm Springs

Elmer’s

FARM

Gelato Granucci

Hunters Nightclub Palm Springs

Impala Bar & Grill PSP

Johannes

Johnny Costa’s Ristorante

Juniper Table

King’s Highway

Lulu California Bistro

Mr. Lyons

Palm Greens Café

Purple Room

Seymour’s

Shop(pe) Ice Cream & Shop

So-Pa at L’Horizon

Tac/Quila

The Front Porch

The Tropicale Restaurant & Lounge

Toucans Tiki Lounge

Townie Bagels Bakery Café

Trio Restaurant

Willie’s Modern Fare

Proud 2023 Dining Out For Life Sponsors

Gilead

Steve Tobin & Johnny Krupa/Grace Helen Spearman Charitable Foundation

Roadrunner

Media Sponsors

100.9 FM NRG The Deserts Dance Station

Alpha Media

CV Independent

Gay Desert Guide

NBC Palm Springs

PromoHomo.TV

The Desert Sun / Local IQ

The Standard Magazine

A Menu Made-to-Measure for DAP Health …

Brad and Lynne Toles of Savoury’s Catering in Palm Springs Created a Custom Menu for 2023’s The Chase 

 

For veteran husband-and-wife culinary team Brad and Lynne Toles of Savoury’s Catering, DAP Health has never been just a client, and The Chase certainly isn’t just a gala.

“We’re so proud to be such longtime partners of this organization for its biggest annual fundraiser,” says Lynne. “Brad and I have lived in Palm Springs since 1997. We care very deeply about this community, and DAP Health is one of its pillars. We’ve been members of the nonprofit’s Partners For Life donor group for more than a decade, and I joined donor group 100 Women the very first year it was created. We’re just so honored to be invited to the party every year.”

Being a perennial participant in The Chase means the Toleses can use their experience of past galas to fine-tune immediate future ones. Last year was the first occasion the entire event — pre-show cocktail hour and main program — was held outside. It was also the initial offering of a cold entrée inside a bento box. “It’s exciting and fun to create food that will present well cold while maintaining all its flavor,” says Lynne. “Plus, whereas we usually try to keep hot foot hot at any venue, using Sterno canned heat in hotboxes, here we have refrigerated trucks and dry ice in those hotboxes to keep cold food cold. Every event is different, of course, and it comes down to the magic of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. It’s an orchestrated dance, to be sure, but we love the challenge.”

Not only do the Toleses and their expert team of chefs, bartenders, bussers, and servers love the challenge, they meet it, and then some. Lynne reports that this year, Brad and his crew created a customized array of choices for The Chase’s gala co-chairs — DAP Health Board Members Kevin Bass, Lauri Kibby, and Scott Nevins — which resulted in a fun first: an entirely gluten-free menu.

Included in 2023’s new Koraku bento box — which translates from Japanese to “picnic lunchbox” — will be a golden and red beet salad with quinoa and a blood orange vinaigrette pipette, seared beef tenderloin with a port wine demi-glace, a poached salmon tower with sliced avocado-mango-papaya and a habanero glaze, and a kale and mushroom ravioli in a pomodoro sauce.

Vegan diners will be offered the same beet duo appetizer alongside a seared spiced tofu salad with miso dressing, the identical ravioli, and a roasted vegetable bundle that includes green beans, spiced portobello mushroom, and red pepper.

The sweet finish will consist of a mini raspberry and chocolate cone paired with a Mexican wedding cookie and a lemon bar. The vegan option will be a mini peach cobbler, a chocolate-dipped strawberry, and a double-chocolate pistachio brownie.

Prior to the formal sit-down dinner, guests will see and be seen — and hopefully engage in meaningful conversation — at Amazon’s Big Ideas Cocktail Party, which will be held inside the Palm Springs Convention Center so as to keep coifs and couture from wilting in the desert heat.

Here, Savoury’s will tray-pass a variety of cold and hot traditional, vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free hors d’oeuvres. Just some of the selections will be peppered ahi cones with a wasabi cream, mini grilled cheese sandwiches drizzled with tomato soup, a Middle Eastern beef sirloin lollipop with tzatziki sauce, caprese canapés, shrimp canapés, mini pigs in a blanket, and Belgian endive with butternut squash and dried cranberry.

To wash it all down, invitees can indulge in a full open bar, or imbibe a specialty cocktail created for the occasion — whose recipe is a well-guarded secret in order to not ruin the surprise: The Glamazon, named after Amazon’s LGBTQ+ affinity group. (Please note: A non-alcoholic version will also be available.)

As Savoury’s puts finishing touches on every detail for the fast-approaching big night, Lynne shares their philosophy of catering such a large-scale event. “First off, I love the collaboration with the client and the event producers. They come to you with their vision for the gala, and then you get to be part of trying to bring that to life,” she says. “Our goal at the end of the day is always the same, every year: to outdo ourselves, to exceed guest expectations, and to provide the best experience humanly possible.”

Wondering What to Wear to The Chase on M …

Wondering what to wear to The Chase?

Susan Stein has some ideas...

Being one of the most glamorous soirées on the desert’s social calendar, DAP Health’s annual gala The Chase (presented this year by Eisenhower Health) attracts all manner of fashionistas flaunting their fabulous baubles and threads in the pursuit of eclipsing other guests’ voguish get-ups. 

I mean, would any clotheshorse worth their weight in leather and lamé be caught dead engaging in the utmost of scintillating repartee at Amazon’s Amazing Cocktail Party in anything but their very best creative formal garb and trappings? 

But what is creative formal, exactly? To suss out the answer — not to mention a few chichi tailored tips — we turned to Palm Springs Life Fashion Director and Scene Editor Susan Stein, a doyenne of haute couture and outré sartorial style who works not only in publishing, but with businesses, charities, designers, marketing teams, and private clients all around the world. Here’s what Stein had to say:   

Warning: This is based on reality-fiction. I’ve taken many “liberties,” and hope this is all taken with both a grain of salt and a plentiful sense of humor. 

When opening another invitation and seeing a “black tie” dress code, I immediately run to my closet, where I’ve crammed in a few (10) long gowns that have been collecting dust for years. Well, maybe four or five years. What could be easier…or more boring? Luckily, I’ve been able to attend The Chase many times since I moved to the desert 20 years ago, and I’m always thrilled by the chance to have some fun and play with fashion. Do I really have 10 gowns? I’ll never tell.  

So — about creative formal. I suggest an eclectic collection of fun pieces that can work together to create an interesting ensemble and can be most appropriate for one of the grandest events of the desert. My mind is churning. “Does this go with this? What will I do for shoes? Jewelry? How hot will it be outside? How windy?” So much indecision. So many challenges. You’re tempted to go right back to that closet with those long gowns and find one that still fits and has the proper accessories close at hand. But let’s not be boring. Time to challenge our sense of style. 

In order to make this as simple as possible, here’s a list of many options, all of which could lead to a fun solution that doesn’t smack of serious black-tie dressing yet fits the bill. After all, veritable royalty will not be in attendance. But there is fashion icon Donna Karan to consider. She’ll love your creativity! 

 

Long skirts are IN (as in, LONG … to the ankles!) 

Take a look at what you have in your eclectic wardrobe. There’s probably a collection of long skirts — leather, prints, taffetas, plaids, and luckily (one of this year’s biggest trends), a rather interesting long denim skirt (hmmm… could it use some feather trim at the hem?)  Pleats are the rage. There’s nothing more elegant than a sweeping entrance in a long knife-pleated skirt. 

Remember to mix high and low 

It’s so much fun to match that great, big ballgown skirt with a black turtleneck or a sleeveless tee that you found at Revivals. 

Sequins work with anything 

A sequin jacket in any color or silhouette makes almost everything black tie-appropriate. I mean, not sweats, but what about a catsuit with great, black, short boots … or one of those long skirts? 

This is the year for feathers 

Not flying bird feathers, but those fluffy ones that move with the breeze (ostrich is a bird, I know!) Use them as an accessory and attach to handbags, top of shoes, neckline and cuffs, or just as a short jacket over something basic. 

Fishnets are the trendy catch of the season 

Fishnet hosiery is really easy to find and very flattering. However, this is also the year of the fishnet tank or dress. Just remember to wear the proper undergarments. That slip dress from years ago goes perfectly under a long fishnet dress. Time to adopt that beautiful bra or midriff-baring undergarment. But take a good look in the mirror before you leave the house. 

Tuxedos 

Split them up or wear pants and jacket together. A satin stripe down the side of a pantleg will make any top look great — maybe even that sequin jacket. A tux top with a pair of sequin or flowy satin full trousers? Think Katherine Hepburn at a black-tie gala. 

Above all… 

Be sure to feel comfortable, handsome or pretty, and to enjoy the wonderful evening al fresco! 

Opening of DAP Health’s Orange Clinic …

Opening of DAP Health’s New Orange Clinic Officially Commemorated

On the evening of Wednesday, February 15, some 75 invitees attended the formal ribbon-cutting of DAP Health’s new Orange Clinic, which is devoted to sexual wellness and housed in the Annette Bloch CARE Building at the main Palm Springs headquarters.

The occasion marked yet another important milestone for Vision Forward, the organization’s 10-year strategic plan that will see it grow to serve 25,000 patients a year by 2025 thanks to expanded medical, dental, and mental health clinics and a new on-campus affordable housing complex that will add 60 units at Vista Sunrise II to the existing 81 units at Vista Sunrise.

As guests enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres provided with compliments of major donor Jerry Keller’s Lulu California Bistro, DAP Health CEO David Brinkman took center stage first, announcing that 90% of Vision Forward’s required funding has been amassed, but stressing that $6 million remains to be raised.

Brinkman went on to thank not only the late, great Annette Bloch and her daughter Linda Lyon — who together bequeathed a total of $4 million to the effort — but other major campaign patrons such as Desert Care Network, Mark Adams and the Ridgeway-Adams Community Center, Dorothy and Mel Lefkowitz (in memory of Keller’s wife, Barbara), Steve Tobin and Johnny Krupa of the Grace Helen Spearman Charitable Foundation (whose donation endowed the Orange Clinic reception area), Mike Feddersen and Tom McClay (who funded the Blue Clinic lobby), DAP Health Board Chair Patrick Jordan, Board Secretary Mark Hamilton and Juan Francisco (who gave to establish the café that will reside in the future Tenet Health Pavilion), Charles Robbins and Damon Romine (benefactors of Exam Room 1 in the Orange Clinic), Board Vice Chair Lauri Kibby, Board Member Kevin Bass and Brent Bloesser, Paul Kowal, Keith Kincaid and Chris Harms, DAP Health Chief Financial Officer Judy Stith, and Lulu’s Keller.

“From Day One, demand has been high and so has patient satisfaction,” continued Brinkman, speaking specifically to sexual wellness needs in the Coachella Valley — including free HIV and STI testing as well as prevention services such as PrEP and PEP. “But one thing was missing — a permanent home. A suitable home. A home that says everyone is welcome and everyone deserves to be cared for in a clean, professional, and dignified environment.”

Orange Clinic Nurse Practitioner Anna Daymon spoke more to that point when she related the story of a transgender patient, Erica, who is living with HIV and who had refused to seek care in the past for fear of attitudes of unenlightened health care professionals. “Erica immediately connected with our Orange Clinic staff, speaking openly with our nurses Chris and Johnny without embarrassment,” said Daymon. “She was shocked by the support that DAP Health’s team provided, which included transportation and insurance assistance. What she realized is that staying in care is actually really easy when one has the right team caring for you. At DAP Health, we accept all people — sex workers, male, female, and trans alike. They all come to the Orange Clinic because they know they’re going to receive competent, compassionate care without stigma or judgment.”

Before noting that in 2022, 5000 patients were cared for at the Orange Clinic — free of cost, as well — Daymon said many patients refer to themselves as “bad” or “stupid” for their actions. “Shaming themselves, just for living,” she revealed. “I simply say, ‘No’ to shame. It’s just sex. You’re just living your life and you’re taking care of yourself and others by being here today. And we got you.”

Charles Robbins — who has spent most of his life working in LGBTQ+ and HIV/AIDS nonprofit spaces — spoke last, adding to Daymon’s message on behalf of himself and of his husband, Damon Romine. “DAP Health is sex-positive,” he affirmed. “The staff is sex-positive. We know that in the Coachella Valley, and especially here in Palm Springs, there’s a lot of sex going on and we love it! It’s healthy, and we want to make sure people are not only taking care of themselves but of the community. That’s why coming in and getting regular testing and treatment is such an important activity. The fact that they can do so in a stigma-free and beautiful environment — that’s why my husband, Damon, and I decided to make an investment. We believe in this community. The work the staff does here is making a difference, making an impact in people’s lives. That’s why we made a gift. We’re just happy to be part of the family.”

It was at that point that Robbins, Krupa, and Tobin took giant orange scissors and — flanked by Brinkman, staff members, and other donors — cut the long orange ribbon, proving that, at DAP Health, everyone is part of the family.

Announcing The Chase 2023 Honorees, Ente …

DAP Health Announces Partnerships, Honorees, and Entertainment for Its Annual Fundraiser The Chase  

When the dazzling 29th Annual Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards (AKA The Chase) return as an all in-person event outdoors at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Saturday, March 25, the show will feature Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actor and musician Darren Criss as its headline performer. The DAP Health Equity Award will be presented to fashion icon and philanthropist Donna Karan. Desert Healthcare District & Foundation CEO Dr. Conrado E. Bárzaga and the organization’s board of directors will be honored with the DAP Health Humanitarian Award.

Karan believes that through creativity, collaboration, connection, and community one can change the world. This conviction lies at the heart of Urban Zen, established by Karan in 2007. The foundation is dedicated to three initiatives: preservation of culture (past); bringing mind, body, and spirit to health care (present); and education (future).

“The Desert Healthcare District & Foundation is the epitome of what the DAP Health Humanitarian Award stands for, and we can think of no organization more deserving to receive this honor,” says DAP Health CEO David Brinkman. “It’s a testament to leadership shown by Dr. Conrado E. Bárzaga and the board during both the COVID-19 and mpox crises. It allowed our organization to make an enormous impact on the lives of valley residents.”

Attendees of The Chase can expect a fast-paced evening led by returning host Michael Urie (a Drama Desk Award-winning star of the new Apple TV+ hit comedy series “Shrinking”), with additional performances by Broadway’s Nick Adams (Hulu’s “Fire Island”) and Saycon Sengbloh, a Tony Award nominee.

“Your presence at The Chase, beyond signaling your support for our honorees, shows your continued commitment to DAP Health’s 10,000+ patients and clients,” continues Brinkman. “Every attendee can count themselves among the bighearted humanitarians who help remove roadblocks to quality care and supportive services for their neighbors and friends so that everyone may live life to their fullest potential.”

Presenting Sponsor Eisenhower Health

The event is presented by Eisenhower Health, a longtime supporter of DAP Health that shares its vision of creating a community where everyone has access to health care and to lives lived with wellness. Eisenhower Health’s President and Chief Executive Officer Marty Massiello explains, “The health care needs of the Palm Springs community present unique challenges. According to recent statistics, the prevalence rate of people living with HIV in Palm Springs is more than 21 times higher than California overall. Eisenhower Health, like our community partner DAP Health, is dedicated to understanding and treating the specific needs of this first generation of people who are aging with HIV. Providing HIV specialists and focusing on both prevention and treatment are vital to advancing health care equality in our community. It’s events like The Chase that help raise awareness, and much-needed funds, to meet these unique health care advancements that both organizations see among our patients.”

Eisenhower Health has been a supporter of DAP Health for decades. “DAP Health and Eisenhower Health share the same vision and the same values,” continues Massiello. “Our organizations envision a community where everyone has access to the care they need, when they need it. We continue to collaborate and innovate together to meet the expanding needs of our valley. We are proud to support the work DAP Health is doing to redefine what health care is and what it can be in the future — including the many social determinants that inform wellness, including housing, health care access, nutrition, and mental health.”

Special Thanks to Amazon for Its Support.

Preceding the main event, guest arrival will take place on an expanded Blue Carpet that honors health care workers and that will grant entrance to Amazon’s Amazing Cocktail Party, where local sensation DJ Modgirl will spin. Amazon is proud to invite attendees of The Chase to think big during the cocktail party. “We imagine a room filled with local leaders communicating bold ideas that inspire our community to create a better path to health care,” says Amazon’s Head of External Affairs & Community Engagement for The West and Inland Empire David Ambroz.

Explaining the synergy between DAP Health and Amazon, Ambroz continues: “What I saw during my first tour has stayed with me all year. I noticed that DAP Health approaches innovation the same way Amazon does — we start with our customers and work backward. DAP Health remains patient-centric in its delivery of human care and development of new ways to improve health and wellness.”

Brinkman: “Amazon serves the valley’s residents, business owners, and employees. The organization has made a long-term commitment to our community, having done business here for more than 10 years, and we are grateful for the company’s prioritization of equitable access to health care for everyone. DAP Health looks forward to partnering with Amazon all year long as we increase the positive impact we can make together. As a leader in our community, Amazon has a vision for — and commitment to — our success.”

The Chase

Created by (and named after) the late, world-renowned interior designer Steve Chase — an early DAP Health donor, volunteer, and board member who worked touring the globe but loved Palm Springs best — this glittery gala is a golden star on the desert’s social calendar.

Co-chairs Kevin Bass, Lauri Kibby, and Scott Nevins promise an evening rife with messages to inspire guests to think more boldly about the future of wellness throughout the Coachella Valley.

Tickets, and more information, are available at daphealth.org/thechase.

Why DAP Health

Today, thousands of our friends and neighbors have no access to health care. Together, likeminded philanthropists of all stripes can change that by joining the nonprofit’s mission to create a healthier tomorrow by giving a voice to the often forgotten and by making sure none of us ever forgets that health care is not only human care, but a human right.

About DAP Health

Founded in 1984 by a group of community volunteers, DAP Health is an internationally renowned humanitarian health care organization and federally qualified health center (FQHC). In 2012, the nonprofit expanded its scope to care for all people.

Thanks to nearly 40 years of caring for people both directly and indirectly affected not only by the HIV/AIDS epidemic but by various other public health emergencies, DAP Health has the physical and intellectual resources, the desire, and — most importantly — the imagination to effect even greater positive change in the desert and beyond.

The next epidemic hasn’t surfaced — yet. But just as DAP Health met earlier community health crises decisively and successfully, its experts stand at the ready.

Vision Forward

DAP Health currently serves more than 10,000 patients annually, and every month, more than 100 new patients walk through its doors seeking comprehensive, quality health care. Clearly, there is unmet need.

Vision Forward is DAP Health’s 10-year strategic plan that will see the nonprofit grow to serve 25,000 patients a year by 2025 thanks to expanded medical, dental, and mental health clinics and a new on-campus affordable housing complex that will add 60 units at Vista Sunrise II to the existing 81 units at Vista Sunrise. Grand total: 141.

The future of health care is holistic, innovative, agile, collaborative — and above all — patient-centric. DAP Health puts humanity back into health care. It meets community members where they are. It seeks out and lifts up allies for the betterment of all.

Health care is...

Advocacy • Cultural Competency • Dental Care • Ending Epidemics • Equitable Access

Food Assistance • Gender-affirming Care • Harm Reduction • HIV Care • Housing

LGBTQ+ Health • Mental Health • Mobile Health Care • Primary Care • Recovery

Sexual Health • Social Services • Women’s Health

DAP Health... is health care.

About Eisenhower Health

Situated on 130 acres in Rancho Mirage, and with outpatient clinics across the valley, Eisenhower Health has provided a full range of quality medical and educational services for 50 years for residents and visitors to the greater Coachella Valley. Over the past decade, Eisenhower has added physicians specializing in HIV, including respected researchers, to provide high-quality care to patients. Eisenhower has twice earned ANCC Magnet Recognition® for professionalism in nursing and excellence in patient care. The first accredited teaching hospital in the valley, Eisenhower trains physician residents in internal medicine, family medicine, and emergency medicine, and offers fellowships in sports medicine, addiction medicine, pulmonary disease, and infectious disease. For more information, visit EisenhowerHealth.org or follow Eisenhower Health on social media.

About Amazon

Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, Earth’s best employer, and Earth’s safest place to work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon.

About Donna Karan

Donna Karan’s philosophy is reflected in the unique retail experiences her brand offers, which features globally inspired apparel as well as products she has sourced and developed with artisans all over the world. A voracious traveler and lifelong yogi — as well as a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother — Karan considers her foundation Urban Zen the realization of her dream not just to dress people, but to address them as well. Throughout her career as a designer, Karan has founded or helped lead many legendary philanthropic efforts, including Seventh on Sale benefiting AIDS research, Super Saturday supporting the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, and Pediatric AIDS Foundation family carnival Kids for Kids.

About Desert Healthcare District & Foundation and CEO Dr. Conrado E. Bárzaga

The Desert Healthcare District is a local government agency formed in 1948 to build a hospital in Palm Springs. Today, through a robust grants program and collaborative community outreach, its mission is to achieve optimal health at all stages of life for all District residents. The District includes more than 400,000 residents and encompasses the entire Coachella Valley. It is governed by a seven-member board of elected directors. The District and Desert Healthcare Foundation, together, are one of the largest funders in the valley. The agency has awarded $92.7 million in funds since 1998. These funds are used to assist residents — especially the underserved — in accessing vitally needed resources, such as primary and behavioral healthcare.

Conrado E. Bárzaga, MD, is an internationally recognized public health leader with over 20 years of experience. He currently serves as chief executive officer of the Desert Healthcare District & Foundation. Since joining the agency staff in July 2019, Dr. Bárzaga has guided the District in achieving state certification from the California Special Districts Association and the Association of California Healthcare Districts. In 2020, he led the development of the Coachella Valley Equity Collaborative to implement an equitable COVID-19 response. He officially joined the Association of California Healthcare Districts Board of Directors in 2021, and currently is chairperson of its Advocacy Committee. Dr. Bárzaga has directed the development of public health programs in the U.S. and abroad. He is a fellow of the Global Child Dental Fund at King’s College, London, and a health leadership fellow of Coro, a leading nonpartisan public policy institution. A native of Cuba, Dr. Bárzaga has extensive experience in philanthropy and international public health systems, such as developing the community health infrastructure with the Bolivian Ministry of Health and Doctors without Borders. He earned his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree from the University of Havana in 1994.

About Michael Urie

Returning for the second year in a row to do the honors as host of The Chase is Michael Urie, who found sudden fame soon after graduating from New York City’s The Juilliard School with 2010’s “Ugly Betty” on ABC, in which he played assistant Marc St. James and for which he was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award. From there, Urie accumulated a slew of celebrated film and TV credits, including “Younger,” “Modern Family,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and “The Good Wife.” In 2021, he was the star of Netflix’s first gay-themed holiday movie, “Single All the Way.” Onstage, he originated the role of Alex More in Jonathan Tolins’ Off-Broadway Streisand satire “Buyer & Cellar,” which he then took on a national tour. He’s also stomped the boards as the lead of such revered pieces as “Angels in America,” “Torch Song,” “Hamlet,” How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” “The Cherry Orchard,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “A Bright Room Called Day,” and “Jane Anger.” He currently co-stars with Harrison Ford in the Apple TV+ hit comedy series “Shrinking.”

About Darren Criss

Since bursting onto the pop culture landscape over a decade ago, Darren Criss has embodied the kind of kaleidoscopic artistry that’s entirely uninhibited by form or genre. For this concert, he will be performing a playlist of songs featured throughout his wildly eclectic career as both a songwriter and performer.

Before Darren Criss exploded into the internet’s subculture as both an actor and songwriter for the YouTube viral hit “A Very Potter Musical” in 2009, he had made a small name for himself playing unique interpretations of popular songs he’d perform at cafés and bars in his hometown of San Francisco. Little did he know that the same knack for covering tunes would serve him well in 2010, when he was cast on FOX’s massively successful musical series “Glee,” from which many of his performances of popular songs would lead to several Billboard-topping records. In 2015, his songwriting also landed him an Emmy nomination for Best Original Music and Lyrics for penning the song “This Time” for the show’s series finale.

Criss has continued to write and produce music extensively through the years, whether for his own releases as an artist or as a songwriter for theater, film, and television. In 2019, he created, executive produced, starred in, and provided all the original songs for his short-form musical comedy series “Royalties,” and earlier this year provided the music and lyrics for the opening number of the 2022 Tony Awards: “Act One.” As an artist, he most recently delivered a genre-diverse collection of “character-driven” singles as part of his 2021 solo EP titled “Masquerade” (BMG), and in the same year, released a full-length Christmas album titled — aptly — “A Very Darren Crissmas” (Decca).

Criss is also a stage veteran whose Broadway credits include the titular role in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (2015), “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (2012), and the 2022 revival of David Mamet’s seminal play “American Buffalo,” alongside Laurence Fishburne and Sam Rockwell. In 2018, his work in Ryan Murphy’s “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” received wide critical acclaim, earning him a Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and Critics’ Choice awards. Criss most recently starred in Netflix’s hit series “Hollywood,” for which he also served as executive producer.

About Nick Adams  

Nick Adams is an award-winning actor, singer, and dancer. He co-stars as Cooper in the critically acclaimed Searchlight feature film “Fire Island” (a Gotham Award winner, People’s Choice Award nominee for Comedy of the Year, and GLAAD Award nominee). Notably, Adams originated the role of Adam/Felicia in the Tony-winning Broadway musical “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” which earned him an honor from the American Theater Hall of Fame, two Broadway Audience Choice Awards, and an Astaire Award nomination for Best Dancer on Broadway. He received national critical acclaim for his portrayal of Whizzer in the North American tour of Lincoln Center Theater’s Broadway production of “Falsettos,” directed by James Lapine. Adams was the final actor to star as Fiyero in the first national touring production of “Wicked.” He recently originated the role of Alexis Gilmore in the Broadway World Award-winning world premiere of “Drag: The Musical” in Hollywood, California, and can be heard on the studio cast album.

About Saycon Sengbloh

Saycon Sengbloh is an award-winning actress with a gift for dramatic storytelling and soaring vocal prowess. The Atlanta native is known for her incredible breadth and versatility, both as an actress and a singer, and has had an exciting year with tentpole projects on the big and small screens. Sengbloh currently stars in the ABC reboot of the classic 1980s family comedy “The Wonder Years” from executive producers Saladin Patterson and Lee Daniels. Saycon plays Lillian Williams, the sharp and confident mother of the young protagonist Dean, narrated by Don Cheadle. She was also recently seen as Erma Franklin, sister to Aretha, in the biopic “Respect,” starring Jennifer Hudson (MGM/United Artists). Having started her career on the stage, Sengbloh has since appeared in nearly a dozen Broadway productions. She starred opposite Lupita Nyong’o in award-winning playwright Danai Gurira’s “Eclipsed” (both on and off-Broadway), which earned her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play, an Obie Award, and a Tony Award nomination.

SPONSORS

PRESENTING SPONSOR

Eisenhower Health

PLATINUM SPONSOR

Amazon

MAJOR SPONSORS

AEG

Desert Care Network

The Desert Sun / Local IQ

Barry Manilow and Garry Kief

Harold Matzner

NBC Palm Springs

Steve Tobin & Johnny Krupa/Grace Helen Spearman Charitable Foundation

STAR SPONSOR

Steven Anders/The Elizabeth Firth Wade Endowment

SUPPORTING SPONSORS

Kevin Bass & Brent Bloesser

Fromberg Edelstein Fromberg

Gilead

Scot & Lance Karp

KESQ

Lauri & Charles Kibby

Scott Nevins & Philip Hodges

Savoury’s

Trina Turk

Walgreens

Marc Walters

BENEFACTOR SPONSORS

Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians

Daniel & Carolyn Caldwell

Coachella Valley Health Personnel

Diageo

HR Simplistic

JJLA

John Holley Pugh Gift Fund

Labcorp

Living Out Palm Springs

Maximum Security

Perry S. McKay

Palm Springs Disposal Services

Revive Wellness

PATRON SPONSORS

JP Morgan Chase

John Williams & Jean-Guy Lachance

Queer Works

MEDIA SPONSORS

Alpha Media

CV Independent

Gay Desert Guide

Palm Springs Life

PromoHomo.TV

The Hollywood Times

The Standard Magazine