What a Journey It’s Been

Ron Brafford was a Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare senior vice president when, in the late 1970s, the TMH Foundation was established as a vehicle for raising funds to augment the hospital’s budget and make possible the procurement of equipment and services that were otherwise unaffordable.

The foundation, he recalls, got off to a slow start.

Brafford estimates that 90% of the members of the donor class in Tallahassee already were closely tied to other organizations and entities such as Florida State University.

“Plus, we had an awareness problem,” said Brafford, whose duties at the time included marketing and public relations. “People didn’t think about our foundation when they were making decisions about their will or their estate.”

Unsure who might show up for TMH’s first Golden Gala, event planners sought a performer with broad appeal and selected Barbara Mandrell, pictured here with Ron Brafford, then a TMH senior vice president. Photo courtesy of Ron Brafford

Brafford heard about an idea that had been embraced by Florida Hospital Orlando that he thought might be worth stealing. Annually, it conducted a formal fundraising and awareness-raising gala that featured a big-name entertainer.

Brafford, and he’s good at this sort of thing, wheedled an invitation to one such Orlando event. He took good notes.

Upon his return to Tallahassee, Brafford reported what he had learned to hospital administrator M.T. Mustian and an event steering committee made up of Grace Dansby, Jean McCully, Eleanor Smith and Marcia Thornberry.

“We started planning our own event, and I was asked to see what I could do about getting the Civic Center and some entertainment,” Brafford said.

Planning was made difficult because no one knew who was likely to show up for the inaugural Tallahassee event. Would the crowd skew younger or older, country or rock ’n’ roll? Under the circumstances, Brafford et al sought an act with general appeal.

When the TMH Foundation’s first Golden Gala was held in 1984, Barbara Mandrell took the stage before 98 tables of eight people.

“She sang and played a bunch of different instruments, and she was a delightful, good person,” Brafford said. “It had been hard to get people to commit to a payment of $60,000 for an entertainer, but that’s what we paid for her that first year.”

Finding the right entertainer is always an issue. Brafford has concluded that the ideal act, in terms of its energy level, falls somewhere between John Legend and Maroon 5.

Brafford with Tony Bennett, who headlined the 2003 Gala. Photo courtesy of Ron Brafford

The 2024 edition of the Golden Gala is scheduled for March 19. Journey will perform.

“In our view, we have taken things up a notch by booking Journey,” said Nigel Allen, the TMH Foundation’s president and chief advancement officer. “Multiple generations revere their songs. We really look forward to the event being a massive singalong with the audience. They have so many songs that are familiar. Don’t Stop Believin’ and other anthems show up on TV and all over the place.”

In the first 24 hours after the foundation announced Journey as its 2024 act, it received $150,000 paid to reserve tables, according to Allen.

“That was a great sign,” he said. “Our stretch goal is to generate $2 million in revenue for the gala and use a meaningful portion of that money to enhance the patient experience and add technology to the Bixler Trauma & Emergency Center.”

Allen said that even as the foundation has had to deal with increasingly expensive booking fees, it has found ways each year to “generate six figures worth of financial support for the hospital. The gala works as a fundraiser, but it’s also a very important part of the brand of TMH. It’s a big event, and people really look forward to it.”

Attendance approaches 2,000 people, Allen said, adding (kiddingly), “That’s a lot of chicken and a lot of Chardonnay.”

Allen noted that “more and more, people who do business with the hospital use the gala as a way to get closer to the hospital personnel they deal with. A lot of key people at TMH get to enjoy the gala as the guest of someone else.”

Brafford, who left TMH in 2005 after 30 years at the hospital, and Allen agree that the gala is forever evolving and made subject to tweaks.

Brafford can recall when the event first went to tiered seating prices. Recently, Allen said, the gala has made it possible for people to get closer to the stage with VIP table options.

“John Gandy and his team at John Gandy Events are part of the secret sauce for the gala,” Allen said. “They know us and our event well, and it’s remarkable what they do. They come up with a different theme for each year. This year, they have an exotic, Moroccan sheik theme in mind.”

Allen regards entertainers and baseball players as probably the two most superstitious groups there are. That is, a lot of idiosyncrasies and peculiarities find their way into agreements as riders.

“Some may require that a picture of Mickey Mouse be placed on the wall of a dressing room,” Allen said. “That way, when they show up and see Mickey Mouse, they know that all of the terms of an agreement have been attended to.”

“Barry Manilow would take pictures with guests only during a 30-minute window prior to the concert,” Brafford said. “He didn’t want anyone to see him sweat.”

Brafford, along with former TMH CEO Duncan Moore and his wife Mary Ann, welcomed 2002 performer Barry Manilow. Photo courtesy of Ron Brafford

Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach had to have Cristal champagne in their dressing rooms. Tony Bennett wanted a vaporizer. 

Gladys Knight had to have a three-bedroom suite, she said.

“She would have her manager in one room and an assistant in another, but in Tallahassee at the time (1998), there was only one hotel downtown that even had two-bedroom suites,” Brafford recalled.

Through the years, Brafford introduced hospitals, including Bay Medical Center (now Ascension Sacred Heart Bay) in Panama City, to the gala idea. He recalls meeting with BMC administrator Gary Muller and board chairman Joe Chapman to help them plan their first gala, which starred Rita Coolidge and was held at the Bay Point Resort.

Brafford was there and recalls that after her stage performance, Coolidge repaired to a piano bar at the resort and kept on playing.

It seems that the gala concept may be here to stay.

Brafford will be taking in the Journey concert and has never missed a gala in 40 years.

Allen has no plans to retire.

“I am having too much fun, so I’m gonna stick around for a while,” he said. “It’s great to work at a job where when you are successful and you are helping other people. We’re touching lives, and I believe that everyone here feels that very, very powerfully.

“Don’t stop believin’,” said Allen. “Hold on to that feelin’.”

Artists Through the Years

Golden Gala Perfromers 1984–2023

➛ 2018: Hall & Oates

➛ 2017: Brad Paisley

➛ 2016: James Taylor

➛ 2015: John Legend

➛ 2014: Lady A

➛ 2013: Maroon 5

➛ 2012: Keith Urban

➛ 2011: Harry Connick Jr.

➛ 2010: Sheryl Crow

➛ 2009: Earth Wind & Fire

➛ 2008: Chicago

➛ 2007: Leanne Womack

➛ 2006: Glenn Frey

➛ 2005: Kenny Loggins

➛ 2004: Michael Bolton

➛ 2003: Tony Bennett

➛ 2002: Barry Manilow

➛ 2001: Pointer Sisters

➛ 2000: 50s Music

➛ 1999: Wynonna Judd

➛ 1998: Gladys Knight

➛ 1997: Natalie Cole

➛ 1996: Danny Gans

➛ 1995: Barbara Mandrell

➛ 1994: Bernadette Peters

➛ 1993: Anne Murray/Danny Gans

➛ 1992: Johnny Mathis

➛ 1991: Paul Anka

➛ 1990: Dionne Warwick/Burt Bacharach

➛ 1989: Oak Ridge Boys

➛ 1988: Wayne Newton

➛ 1987: John Denver

➛ 1986: Donny & Marie Osmond

➛ 1985: Glen Campbell

➛ 1984: Barbara Mandrell