James Bond to the Rescue

This past Saturday at the La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach, James Bond came to the rescue for a good cause. Miami Beach trendsetters dressed to the nines for the James Bond Casino Night benefiting CDifferent, an organization founded to inspire visually impaired people around the world to lead active, healthy lives by connecting them with sighted guides. More than 200 visually impaired athletes have competed in marathons, triathlons, and short-distance races across North America thanks to CDifferent.

Clayton Clavette and Michael Capponi and a host committee including yours truly, along with a number of other positive contributors, presented the event. It was a fun-filled evening trying your luck at casino games and high-stakes poker with $20,000 in cash and prizes. Guests were treated to a dinner compliments of Epicure Gourmet Market, open bar with Ketel One Vodka and endlessly flowing champagne, live entertainment, informal modeling, and a silent auction.

The venue itself is wonderful with a rich and colorful past. Many of us local party people had never before experienced the La Gorce Country Club. John Oliver LaGorce, a pioneer in the development of Miami Beach, founded it in 1924. It was built by dredging more than two million cubic yards from Biscayne Bay.  Green fees were only $3.35 back then and attracted celebrities like Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Tex Rickard, John Golden, Babe Zaharias, Betty Hicks, Patty Berg, Eddie Rickenbacker, Will Rogers, Harvey Firestone, Gar Wood, and Edgar Guest, to name a few.

A cross-section of the current membership includes people from across the United States and Canada who, year after year, consider La Gorce their “second home”. Several members are the third generation of some of Miami’s most prominent families. Businesses and professions from accountants to zoologists make up the diverse membership. La Gorce’s heritage is one to be proud of and its place today is well established in the Miami community.

Check the Haute Living events page for more images from the evening.

Hope Gainer, president of Hope International, is a global imagemaker, marketer, and branding expert with 30 years of lifestyle experience with a focus today on the luxury market.  She produces unique, upscale events around the world. Gainer is a founding member of the Florida Luxury Council and a contributor to several luxury magazines including Elite Traveler and Haute Living. She also represents spectacular trophy real estate properties.