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MEITUS: Lettuce not only green at the ball

Published October 10, 2007 at midnight

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When it was proposed that the Booklovers' Ball should go green this year, the committee was skeptical. After all, this is the Denver Public Library's biggest fundraising event and a formal affair.

"They said, 'Right, Birkenstocks and tie-dye,' " says Tracy Donovan, marketing coordinator for the event. "But a lot of going green is just intuitive. When you put on a big gala and you have 700 or 800 people eating and drinking, there's a lot you can do."

The Booklovers' Ball will be Oct. 20 at the Denver Central Library. With the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver promising to be the greenest political convention to date and even the Academy Awards going green this year, Donovan felt it was time to shake up the ball.

The committee came around, and so far, Donovan's instincts have paid off. Going green has generated a lot of buzz; ticket sales are way up for the event and are projected to reach 800. "That's amazing," Donovan says. "I think people want to see what it's about, and community leaders and sponsors are really behind it."

But, in the words of a famous frog, "It's not easy being green." For a fundraiser, going green presented challenges, such as how to make changes and still remain cost-effective. Jimmy Lambatos of Footers Catering was impressed at their attitude. "They approached this not as a burden, but how can we go with this and not just pay lip service."

One way was to set aside the all-or-nothing debate.

"There's always an excuse when you're going green," Lambatos says. "It's always, 'What if?' " Instead of focusing on "what if" they couldn't find environmentally friendly plastic wrap, they focused on what they could find.

Lambatos says he pictured his servers riding bicycles en masse down Broadway to the event at the Denver Central Library. Short of that, he looked at the kind of detergent he was using in his dishwashers, the linen suppliers and their environmental impact and, of course, the food. When he couldn't find locally grown or locally farmed food, he chose organic, which has its own limitations based on what's available.

Still, Lambatos came up with an impressive menu: Red Bell Peppers Filled With Spinach, Endive and Asparagus; Coleman Beef Medallions; Colorado Striped Bass; and a Butternut Squash Risotto With Sage.

As for the event itself, the theme is Elements, celebrating earth, air, fire and water. Look for tap water, not bottled water, and don't look for cut flowers. Instead, local nonprofit Tree by Tree: The Mile High Million, funded by Suncor Energy, is donating trees for decoration. Volunteers will plant the trees at the library branches after the event.

The Denver City Greenhouse is lending live plants for the evening. The Whole Foods Green Team is providing composting and recycling services, including bins to recycle event programs. And Metro Taxi is standing by with its hybrid fleet.

Donovan hopes that other events - large, small and in between - will consider or reconsider going green. "The bottom line," she says, "is that it's the right thing to do."