Hollywood icon Jamie Lee Curtis was honored at the 30th Anniversary of Project Angel Food, an organization Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson founded.
By: Heather Newgen
For the last two decades Jamie Lee Curtis has volunteered at Project Angel Food, an organization that was created in response to the AIDS epidemic. The non-profit prepares and delivers healthy meals to people battling serious illnesses. Volunteers are heavily relied on to help with the 12,000 meals per week Project Angel Food makes for people in need and Curtis gave them all a shoutout in her speech.
“Every person in a blue shirt I want you to come close [to the stage]. We are here because of you. Simply that. There is no other reason we are here than the effort that you have put forth. This has nothing to do with me. This has everything to do with you and it has everything to do with Marianne Williamson.”
The “Halloween” star also talked about what Project Angel Food means to her.
“It brings us into alignment with what is greater than ourselves and so as I said, everybody is touched by the first contact that you have with somebody with HIV or Aids, and in my case it was my sweet, fucking talented friend, gorgeous man Richard Frank, an actor on a TV series that I did. Beautiful man married to a gorgeous guy and Rick Frank, you know, was my heart, my soul. I loved him, he loved my daughter and you know, he got sick and when I came here when I knew I was going to come here tonight. So, Rick was an artist and the thing that was so incredibly cruel about the AIDS crisis is that it attacked young, creative people. The amount of creativity and art that was affected by this horrible disease was astonishing and he was an artist and a great man and a great actor,” she revealed.
Williamson also reflected on the AIDS crisis.
“This city it’s much like what the country is going through today. This city was brash and young, and once AIDS arrived, there was a level of brashness that would never be the same again, a level of innocence that would never be the same again. But what I believe this country will experience is what Los Angeles and other cities such as this experience during the AIDS crisis. You can go through a crisis, and if we love each other enough as we move through it, do right by each other and never look away from human suffering, and always show up for the human sufferer, we will transform this crisis, we will get better,” the presidential hopeful told the crowd.
She continued, “These days Project Angel Food provides meals to homebound Angelenos suffering from a variety of life-threatening illnesses but originally it catered to people with AIDS. When this organization was founded, it was a time of such despair — there was such hopelessness. Such devastation.”
Other celebrity supporters of Project Angel Food who couldn’t be there in person, but sent their regards in a video included Whoopi Goldberg and Judith Light, who has been on the board since 1989 and narrates the short film.
“We were together in our youth,” Goldberg said on video. “I thought you were the greatest organization on the planet. And I still do because you have all these folks who in their hearts know the right thing to do. And you encourage people to do kind and wonderful things and to look out for each other.”
Philanthropists and skincare creationists of Retrouve and Kiehl’s Since 1851, Jami Morse Heidegger and Klaus Heidegger were also honored with the Project Angel Food Leadership Award. In addition, the evening included performances by Mary Wilson, of The Supremes and Maelyn Jarmon, Season 16 winner of The Voice. California legend Danny Trejo catered the event.
Volunteers are always needed at Project Angel Food. For more information please visit : https://www.angelfood.org/