Keep Memory Alive honored Blake Shelton at the 27th annual Power of Love® gala on Friday, May 10, at MGM Grand Garden Arena. An esteemed lineup of entertainers, including Gwen Stefani, Jay Allen, Colbie Caillat, Kristin Chenoweth, Andy Grammer, Mickey Guyton, Gary LeVox, Cassadee Pope, and Jay Pharaoh, came together to celebrate the country music sensation.
The Power of Love gala is a vital platform for raising funds to enable the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health to find, fund, and facilitate the most effective and innovative research, treatment, and educational support programming for patients and their families affected by brain disorders, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, multiple system atrophy, and multiple sclerosis.
Other notable guests in attendance included Lisa Vanderpump, Ken Todd, Crystal Minkoff, Rob Minkoff, Meredith Marks, Deniece Williams, Tommy Thayer, Mark Davis, Elaine Wynn, Jeffrey Soffer, Steven Lagos, and Maria Shriver, founder of The Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement Prevention and Research Center at Cleveland Clinic and chief visionary and strategic advisor of the new Women’s Comprehensive Health and Research Center.
Chefs Wolfgang Puck and Evan Funke prepared the gourmet dinner, which was paired with wines from Southern Glazer’s Wine, Spirits & Beer of Nevada. The MGM Grand pastry team then presented a dazzling dessert display.
Keep Memory Alive Co-founders Camille and Larry Ruvo welcomed the 1,500 guests, with Camille remarking, “Before there is a cure, there is a caregiver. Until the cure, there is a caregiver. A topic we rarely think about, yet it is more prevalent than we realize. Each day at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, a patient is diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease such as Alzhzeimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. And standing beside them facing this life changing reality is a caregiver. The perfect example of the ultimate caregiver is a mom. With Mother’s Day this weekend, I want to express my gratitude to all of your mothers because without them, we wouldn’t have the wonderful community sitting before us here this evening.”
Larry Ruvo then gave a “report card” of the past 15 years since the center opened, citing:
- 300,000 patient visits
- Designed the first Women’s Alzheimer’s Prevention Program
- More than 116,000 visits for the Angie Ruvo Caregiving Program
- Only National Multiple Sclerosis Society Center for comprehensive mass care in the state
- Nevada’s first and only Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence
- One of the first five CurePSP Centers of Care in the U.S. and a Center of Excellence for Alzheimer’s
The Ruvos presented Shelton with the Lou Ruvo Philanthropic Award, designed by Frank Gehry for his charitable work, praising Shelton for “living a life of true generosity and giving so freely to so many causes.”
Allen delivered a moving rendition of his viral hit song “Blank Stares” inspired by his mother’s battle with the disease. Pharaoh then treated the audience to a side-splitting comedy set before the performances kicked off featuring a mix of original and renditions of Shelton’s songs, including:
- “Keep Your Head Up” by Grammer
- “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Chenoweth
- “God’s Country” by Guyton
- “Make It Rhyme” by LeVox
- “Neon Lights” by LeVox and Pope
- “Wasting All These Tears” by Pope
- “Bubbly” by Caillat
Larry Ruvo and Camille Ruvo address the crowd at the 27th annual Keep Memory Alive Power of Love gala in Las Vegas. © Bryan Steffy / Getty Images
The night culminated in Shelton taking the stage to perform “Sangria,” “Ol’ Red” and leading the crowd in a rousing rendition of “Sweet Caroline” from Neil Diamond, the 2020 Power of Love honoree. Stefani then joined him for the closing duet “Nobody But You.”
Throughout the evening, almost every star reflected on the profound impact of brain disease within their families. Meredith Marks became emotional as she spoke about the loss of her father, Crystal Minkoff fondly remembered her own father, Cassadee Pope spoke about her grandmother battling dementia. At the same time, Deniece Williams shared her experience of caregiving for her aunt.
In celebration of Mother’s Day weekend, the stars also shared messages for the special moms in their lives.
Guests bid on once-in-a-lifetime silent and live auction items. Even Shelton got into the action, bidding and winning a walk-on role in a Mark Wahlberg movie and later joking that he was a movie star.
