Thursday, October 28, 1999
Mayor pedaling in the desert for juvenile diabetes
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Don't know, but this might be a good time to go fight city hall. Seems the mayor is headed for the hills.
To wit: Mayor Roxanne Qualls,a hard-core bike rider, heads to Death Valley next week for the Death Valley Century Ride, a 100-mile trek that starts in Badwater, Death Valley, and climbs 1,617 feet to Jubilee Pass.
It's a fund-raiser where bikers line up $3,000 in pledges for Juvenile Diabetes Foundation in exchange for airfare and the right to sweat out temperatures as high as 100`.
Qualls is one of 46 locals headed to the hot California spot. Mary Brown, widow of Bengals founder Paul Brown, is headed out. So is Pete Chronis, CEO of Reece Campbell Construction and a 5-member P&G team.
“Aside from wind in your face, the hardest thing is the bicycle seat,” Qualls says. “It's a deceptive ride, because you look out and it looks undulating, not steep. Then you start to climb and, well, it's steep.
“I did this last year and spent time talking to Mary (Brown). Amazing. I had to work to keep up with her.”
This after Qualls' “couple 25-mile a week rides in Goshen, Lebanon, sometimes Lunken.”
The ride is about five hours and there's no word on how much money Cincinnatians have raised this year ($135,000 was last year's total). Qualls is “around $5,000. I need a final tally.”
NAME GAME: This much we know: The Contemporary Arts Center is offering donors naming rights on the galleries of its new $30.3 million home when it opens in spring 2001. This much we don't know: Who the heck gets to name what?
Turns out lots of people have given money, but the naming process hasn't begun.
First, says CAC director Charles Desmaris, the design is still being tweaked by architect Zaha Hadid — walls moving, interior spaces re-defined — and that holds up naming.
Second, he says, a lot of the donors give money out of love of the arts and don't care where their name is plastered.
“Couples like Stan and Mickey Kaplan. They made a donation but they're in no rush to claim space. They're the type to take what's left after other choose.”
Donors Alice and Harris Weston kicked in $2.2 million but have claimed nothing. Otto Budig, kicked in $1 million and hasn't claimed a space, though word at the CAC is the atrium will be named for him.
The building, meanwhile, carries Dick and Lois Rosenthal's name after their $5 million donation.
Thinking of kicking in? It's $250,000 for a small gallery, up to $2.5 million for a large one.
Once it's built, that is. “I'm hoping construction can begin in spring, but you can't be sure,” Desmaris says.
GOOD LUCK: How about a round of applause?
Clap it for Michelle Johnson, 31, of Maysville, Ky. She gets to party with Cindy Crawford.
To wit: FosterGrant celebrates its 70th birthday with a party at Los Angeles' Skybar in the Mondrian hotel. It will be mostly with VIPs (Crawford, ad execs, agents) but FosterGrant held back a spot for a sweepstakes winner. Johnson.
More than 200,000 entered the drawing. The party is Nov. 4.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
