Our annual gala event, the High Aspirations’ Annual Mentors Challenge Banquet, will be held this year on Thursday, November 7, 2019. The evening is sure to be a phenomenal gathering of Kansas City’s business and civic leaders.

Our special guest speaker for the evening is Elijah Anderson, an American sociologist. He holds the Sterling Professorship of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University, where he teaches and directs the Urban Ethnography Project. Anderson is one of the nation’s leading urban ethnographers and cultural theorists. His most recent work is: The Cosmopolitan Canopy: Race and Civility in Everyday Life (W.W. Norton).

The list of prior Mentors Challenge co-chairs, honorary co-chairs, co-champions and sponsors include the late Henry W. Bloch; William H. Dunn, Sr.; Marianne & Bill Dunn, Jr.; the Honorable Brian and Michelle Wimes; Gayle and Bruce Krigel; Anita and Gary Maltbia; Dana & Doug Nelson; Karen Daniel; Tammy Edwards; Margaret and Marlin Fiola; Rico Tejeda; Thomas Bloch; and Barnett Helzberg.

This year we are supported by Co-Chairs Vicki Clayman and Debbie Swearingen and are privileged to welcome Mary and Thomas Bloch and Peggy and Terrence Dunn as our Honorary Co-Chairs.