"Evening of Music and Friends" Salutes Noel Matkin and Jim Sincox

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Straight (LGBT&S) Alliance Fund held its 5^th annual "Evening with Music and Friends" on April 18, 2008, at the home of Randy Soderstrom and Steve Quinlan. A group of 150 celebrated a year of successful philanthropy and heard the announcement of a major new initiative, the Noel Matkin-Jim Sincox Tribute Endowment Fund and Awards. Named for two leaders of the Southern Arizona LGBT community and backed by $250,000 in pledged funding in an ongoing campaign, the Matkin-Sincox Awards will be granted annually by the Alliance Fund to outstanding projects that promote and celebrate diversity in Southern Arizona. Drs. Matkin and Sincox, domestic partners, will help choose the awardee organizations. Matkin is a member emeritus of the Alliance Fund's Board of Advisors, and Sincox is a former long-time member of the Board of Directors at Wingspan. Tributes to the pair were made by major donors to the fund and a certificate citing their many accomplishments, signed by Mayor Walkup on behalf of the City of Tucson, was presented by Kathy Altman and Ivy Schwartz.

Ernesto Portillo, Jr., was master of ceremonies for the evening which featured vocals by Marianne Dissard and jazz guitar by Naim Amor. The Alliance Fund awarded $40,000 this year to 15 projects that benefit the LGBT community. Since 2000, the LGBT-Straight Alliance Fund has given $360,000 in awards to 72 projects.

Among the guests for the gala evening were Noel Matkin and daughter Cyndy Lazarz, Jim Sincox, Scott Blades, Executive Director of Tucson Interfaith HIV-AIDS Network, Wendell Hicks, Executive Director of Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, Jason Cianciotto, Executive Director of Wingspan, Randy Soderstrom, President of the LGBT-Straight Alliance Fund, Cathy Busha, Director of LGBTQ Affairs at University of Arizona, Laura Penny, Executive Director of the Women's Foundation, and Lori Hoby, Executive Director of the Center for Planned Giving, Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. In addition to hosts Soderstrom and Quinlan, other founders of the Matkin-Sincox Fund present were Brian Bateman and Thom Melendez, Bill Haller and John Jackson, and Roger Funk and Doug Noffsinger. Founders not present were Dianne Van Tasell and Steve Eggimann, and Margo Barnes and Vicky Stromee.

Information on the LGBT-Straight Alliance Fund grant-making round for this year and on the new Matkin-Sincox Fund will be available at this website later in Summer 2008.