Hearts and Helmets Party: A Good Reason to Get into Town Early on Wednesday

Posted Jan 12th 2008 9:11PM by Ken Spalasso, SBPHQ Staff

The Super Bowl party weekend will officially kick off with the ‘Hearts and Helmets’ party on Wednesday, January 30th at the Venue of Scottsdale (Formerly the Cajun Club). Lasting from 5:30 p.m. all the way until 1:30 a.m., this, and the Jay Leno-hosted NFL event at the Phoenician, look to be the only major Super Bowl parties that are happening on Wednesday night. Hearts and Helmets will go longer into the night than the Leno-hosted party, so true party-goers will want to give strong consideration to attending this one. Only during Super Bowl Week can you catch celebrities like Pamela Anderson and Shawn Marion of the Phoenix Suns sharing co-hosting duties. Former Baywatch babe Anderson will be hosting the celebrity party portion of the evening, while you can be sure to catch Shawn Marion at the poker table as he will be hosting a poker tournament which is expected to bring many celebs, sports stars and ordinary citizens together to see who can last the longest and play the best. For sponsors $5,000 and up, there will be a meet and greet with the hosts that is slated to occur at 4:30 p.m. That is also the time that celebrites are expected to arrive and walk the red carpet.  Inside, attendees can check out the video game room, dancing, pool tables, and even the golf putting range. But don't break too much of a sweat, the designated attire is cocktail/dress to impress and the dress code will be strictly enforced.    

Invited Guests include:   Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs, NBA Legends, Eva Longoria Parker, Cast Members from Entourage, Jamie Foxx, Jermaine Dye, Jerome Bettis, Luis Gonzalez, Jennie Finch, Wanda Sykes, 50 Cent, Ray Romano, Michael Jordan, Ludacris, Don Cheadle, Dan O'Brien, Rocco Mediate, Kevin O'Donnell, Shannon Elizabeth, Kevin Nealon, David "Big Papi" Ortiz, Olympic gold medalist Dan O’Brien, and Seinfeld actor Patrick Warburton (We know him as Elain's boyfriend "Puddy"). Since the party has Pamela Anderson and Phoenix Suns star Shawn Marion hosting this event, a star-studded crowd can be expected.    

Be sure to buy your tickets in advance as pre-registration is required for this event that will draw as many as 800 people. If you purchase on or before January 14, 2008, the full $1,000 registration/ticket fee will be cut in half to $500.

We talked to Jeff Geller from Full House Event Productions, the Executive Director for the Hearts & Helmets party. Jeff provided superbowlpartyhq.com with more details on this event, especially the poker tourney. The poker registration is at 5:45 p.m. and the Venue of Scottsdale is spacious enough enought to fit 30 poker tables with 10 seats each. Any guest can play or watch at the poker tables, but to play you must have a seat at a table by the cutoff time which is expected to be 5:45 p.m. Multiple prizes will be awarded, with the grand prize being a seat at a World Series of Poker event, valued at $10,000. The plan is for each table to have at least one celebrity.

Geller explains the unique experience available for just the price of admission, "This is the most exciting way to actually interact with the big name celebrities, movie stars, comedians, and athletes because you’re going to be side by side, going head-to head, and having interaction with these people. You’re going to raise the player across from you and it might be Shawn Marion. And Shawn Marion’s going to fold, call you, or raise right back. If you go into a restaurant, you can’t sit down with a bottle of wine and share it with Shawn. But here, you’ll be sharing the same pot and the same set of cards. You’re competing with each other and you’re telling the same jokes. It’s a really good time. You get to actually interact and get a grasp of what the personalities of these people are on the same level because nobody's got any advantage. Shawn’s got athletic abilities that 99% of the population doesn’t have, yet his two cards probably aren’t any better than your two cards, and your pile of chips can get bigger than him. So regardless of box office draw, salary, or starting position, on the poker field everything is even."

As far as other big names at the tables, Geller keeps us guessing. "There are a lot of big names that will be showing up that I'm not at liberty to discuss."

Sponsors are encouraged to take advantage of the special opportunity this event provides. For many sponsorship levels, there is the ability to have your logo on the actual poker table that the celebrities will be playing on. Jeff elaborates, "We’re giving you a full poker table. We’re loading it up with celebrities. People are going to be having fun on it all night long. The action's gonna be changing. The celebrities are gonna be changing . The guests are gonna be changing. You get mass exposure. All the action happening right on your table. And then at the end of night, you get to keep the table. And you get to keep the pictures and all the memories of the action happening at your table." The planners are going all out to make this event memorable for the guests, including hiring photographers and videographers to capture the attendees and provide access to the photos.

The food will be presented buffet style, and we have been assured that there will be enough food available to fill up the entire eight hours of the event. The Restaurant Sponsors are three of Scottsdale's most popular eateries: Pita Jungle (serving Mediterranean food as hors douvres), Village Tavern (serving dinner), and Z Tejas (serving after hours food and late night snacks). Cocktails will include concoctions utilizing, among other spirits, Kettle One, Kettle Citron, Jack Daniels, and Stellar Gin.

A silent auction as well as a live auction is scheduled to occur during the evening. For the silent auction, many cool experiences will be up for grabs. For instance, for the last event, appearances on Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and CSI were auction items. An auctioneer will be conducting the live auction, which features a truly one-of-a-kind item donated by Scottsdale's own Victor Ostrovsky. Ostrovsky, an internationally reknown artist, just donated his latest piece, worth $95,000, to the charities for the live auction.

As for the main party area, guests who paid regular admission can be assured that there won't be a huge roped off VIP area. For $5,500, guests can reserve cabanas for the night, complete with amenities like bottle service. But the cabanas are seen as more of a place of periodic refuge, as opposed to a hideout for VIP's. The planners tell us that the chances are good that you'll be dancing in the same area as Pamela Anderson and confirmed guests like Kendra Wilkinson, Holly Robinson Peete, Lisa Dergan, and Marcellus Wiley. The party planners are still in talks with a few big-name friends of Shawn Marion, who may serve as the entertainment for the evening, alongside vocalist Raquel Aurilia and a DJ.

The net proceeds from this event will benefit at least nine charities including the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, Free Arts of Arizona, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Brad Pitt’s Global Green USA Project in New Orleans, the Jerome Bettis Bus Stops Here Foundation and the Shawn Marion Foundation. Jeff Geller hopes to raise one million dollars for the event, which has several charity organizations making calls to secure the best talent for the party. "The charities all became partners on the event. They’re bringing in the big hitters. It became a group effort where everyone is trying to make the party as big and as fun as they can." 

Buy tickets here - http://www.allinforacause.org/registration.php  or call 480-236-2237.

Official Party Website - http://www.allinforacause.org/schedule.php