In the 13 years Monique Payton spent here with husband and former Sonic guard Gary Payton, she forged a bond with the community that she says she doesn't want to break.
Never mind that Gary, who becomes an NBA free agent July 1 after finishing the season in Milwaukee, left the team that made him a basketball superstar on less-than-friendly terms.
Never mind that Monique, Gary and their three kids now split their time between their hometown of Oakland, Calif., and Las Vegas.
Seattle is where Monique's heart resides, she insists. And this weekend, she's coming home to help raise money for AIDS awareness programs, at a time when HIV-infection rates are soaring and donations are falling.
On Saturday, Payton will host the second Red, White and Blues event at the Experience Music Project to raise money for AIDS education and prevention programs at Seattle-based Lifelong AIDS Alliance.
A combination music show, wine tasting and sports-memorabilia auction, Red, White and Blues is Payton's passion — an idea she conceived in memory of her cousin Shawn Guidry, who died of AIDS-related complications in 2001. Payton said she was heartbroken that her cousin hid the disease from his family until his final days. She wanted to do something.
Last year's event raised $72,000 for the nonprofit alliance.
But the Sonics traded Payton's husband just as she was planning this year's event. It was awkward timing and an unexpected new challenge. How can you be the face and driving force of a Seattle charity event when you no longer live here full time?
"Seattle just feels like home to me," she said last week from San Diego, where she was helping a niece buy high-school-graduation clothes. "I love Seattle. And I don't care. I'd sell lemonade on a corner, just so I can do something for Lifelong AIDS Alliance. That's my family."
The alliance is simply grateful for the support of a celebrity with ties across a broad spectrum of the community, even if that celebrity now lives elsewhere.
"At a time when people were beginning to forget about AIDS, I think Monique has helped increase the attention by telling her personal story," Lifelong AIDS Alliance Executive Director Chuck Kuehn said. "It's been a huge boost to the organization."
A much needed boost
As a high-profile, black, heterosexual woman in a prevention movement associated with gay men, Payton can act as an ambassador among people who aren't involved in the gay community but whose donations can help, Kuehn said.
Payton may have left Seattle, Kuehn added, but "the reality is, people are very loyal to her story."
AIDS-prevention efforts certainly need a boost in King County. The number of new HIV infections diagnosed at public-health clinics rose 40 percent last year and could rise another 60 percent this year, according to Public Health — Seattle & King County. The current rate of new infections is an estimated 400 to 500 cases a year.
It's unclear why the increase is so dramatic, but among the theories are prevention fatigue and the mistaken belief among some that AIDS is curable with the latest crop of drug co*cktails, or at least not deadly.
Participation and donations at local AIDS benefits, such as AIDS Walk, have slumped. AIDS Walk took in $400,000 with 3,500 walkers last fall, down from $650,000 and 4,000 people a year earlier.
Payton is aware she's chosen a daunting project, given the troubling trends.
Spurred by the continuing need for strong prevention efforts, she's trying to build on the momentum from last year's show. This year, for example, Wells Fargo has come on board as a corporate sponsor, with a gift of $20,000 to help cover the cost of the event.
Red, White and Blues is the first charity event Payton has organized on her own. The Gary Payton Foundation is not involved. She's careful not take on responsibilities better left to experienced organizers. "My right hand and left hand are (event co-producers) Catherine Gerlach and Andy Boyer," she said. "They put together the proposals and work the phones. I do the footwork when it comes to the celebrity side of things."
Hitting up celebrities
When Payton uses the term "footwork," it's not just a euphemism.
For the live and silent auctions at the event, Payton has acquired autographed, game-worn athletic shoes from the likes of NBA stars Karl Malone, Chris Webber, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd and Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, who beat Kidd's New Jersey Nets to clinch the NBA championship Sunday.
Also up for bid are autographed NBA jerseys from husband Gary (shirts from both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Sonics), Ray Allen and Desmond Mason.
Collecting items for the auction often required Payton to work the corridors of KeyArena and other sports complexes, before games and at halftime, to make personal requests.
Payton's also been hitting up famous friends and strangers to support her event.
At an awards banquet honoring Gary Payton's charity work in New York this spring, she bumped into civil-rights activist Andrew Young and baseball great Hank Aaron. She ran up to her room at the hotel, in the same building, and brought them invitations to the event.
"I didn't care if the president was there, I was going to go up to my room to get him an invitation," she joked.
"I call (filmmaker) Penny Marshall all the time," Payton said. "I don't hold my tongue — all they can say is no," she said.
Like Payton, this weekend's fund-raiser will be "upbeat, not stuffy and sit-down."
Her father, R&B bandleader Ollan Christopher, and stepmother, Zakiya Hooker, the daughter of late blues legend John Lee Hooker, will perform. And yes, the Glove will attend. "He'll be there — in the background," she quipped.
Payton and her husband are in a strange transition now. They still don't know whose team Gary will play for next season. Still, she'd like to make the AIDS benefit a longstanding event.
"Hopefully, we can come back and continue to do this," she said. "It's a disease that is not going away."
Tyrone Beason: 206-464-2251 or tbeason@seattletimes.com
AIDS fund-raiser
The Red, White and Blues AIDS fund-raiser will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Sky Church at Experience Music Project, Seattle Center. Some seats are still available. Reserved seating costs $125 per person, which includes wine, entertainment and food. Call 206-957-1770 for more information.
