The Sept. 13 event at Villa Ragusa drew 600 guests, including vendors, charity organizations, city officials, and residents looking to dine and dance up a storm to benefit the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, Guide Dogs for the Blind, and Special Olympics of Northern California.

Alan Aerts was thrilled with the success of the event, although he says he won't know how much the benefit raised for at least a month, after he has finished calling all table captains, donors, council members and charities to thank them for their support. However, this has not stopped him from getting a jumpstart on next year. "The response for the event has been unbelievable, so I am already starting on ideas for next year," he says, adding that he will likely set up committees to handle the increasing tasks of the event as it grows.

Since the first gala last year, the event grew substantially, selling out all tickets and offering 170 silent auction items, as compared to 36 last year. "The quality of the merchandise was excellent," Aerts says. "I thought we overkilled on the auction items, but almost everything sold."

Items up for grabs were a mixture of cute, excellent, and immense—from a plush teddy bear or radio-controlled race car to original Picasso lithographs, an autographed Barry Bonds baseball bat, full-sized Coke machine, vintage airplane tour through San Francisco and a private tour and ride with the Campbell Police Department for eight people.

While bidding wars ensued over silent auction items and table centerpieces, speakers from all four organizations gave inspiring speeches to explain what services each group provided. Vickie Kennedy and her dog, Frieda, kicked off the presentations for Guide Dogs for the Blind, followed by Joe Green and his dog, Mogan. Green received his companion as a result of fundraising from the first Aerts gala.

Next up were gold-medal winners Ryan Epidendio and Lindsay Milbach, who explained their involvement as athletes with the Special Olympics of Northern California.

Along with her mother, Mary Huges Stone, the young Annemarie Stone then provided information about her life as a diabetic and the American Diabetes Association, followed by an informational speech by Rose Simmons of the American Cancer Society.

A special segment of the evening honored three local high school students who were awarded the Alan & Bonnie Aerts Humanitarian Scholarship for outstanding work in their community. The recipients included Jacob Osborn of Saratoga High School, Rita Rikitar of Los Gatos High School, and Corey Trexel of Nova in Los Gatos. Aerts formed the scholarship with his wife last year to help students with college tuition.

Although the students received the award during graduation, Aerts says he wanted to honor them at the event because they did not get enough time at the end of the year. "I wanted to present to community leaders that there is hope for the future," he says. "These are the kids who work hundreds of hours because they want to do it, because they want to make a difference."

After speeches and honors were given, emcee Gary Scott Thomas opened up the dance floor to introduce Mack the Knife, which provided music for the ready-to-boogie crowd until 11 p.m. The evening concluded with cake and the announcement of auction winners.

Aerts says the event was more of a success than he ever hoped for and that he can only see it getting bigger each year. "It could be two to three times the size next year—easily thousands of guests," he says. "But we'll grow slowly, because where would we put them? I want to keep it here [at Villa Ragusa]. Everyone loves it here, and I also want to keep costs down so people can afford to come."

Despite the stress of auction lists and ticket stubs piled up on his desk, Aerts is delighted when thinking about next year. He is already planning on adding two more charities to the benefit roster—the Capernaum Project, which aids severely disabled athletes in the Special Olympics, and Nike Animal Rescue.

"Helping the American Cancer Association is very important, it's great. But we are a drop in the bucket for them," Aerts explains. "For an organization like Nike Animal Rescue, that has an annual budget of $100,000—just imagine what $30,000 would do for them. It would be amazing."