Rocktober derails Union Station gala — temporarily

Everything was in place for one of the biggest social events of the season. Union Station was primed to host “A Night in Old Union Station,” a swanky, Victorian-themed gala, on October 15, with tickets set at $40 to $200 to raise money for a replica of the long-gone Mizpah (Welcome) Arch as part of Union Station’s ambitious redevelopment.

Then, however, came the party crashers — the Colorado Rockies.

When the Rockies clinched a playoff berth last week, the Union Station Advocates, the civic group behind the fundraiser, realized they could be heading for a major social train wreck. “You know, it’s kind of an act of faith,” says Advocates co-chair Dana Crawford. “We can’t envision for sure where the Rockies will be exactly when we get to October 15th, but we want to bet on the Rockies.”

Unfortunately, the Rockies just lost game one against the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1. But in the happy occasion that the boys in blue and purple are still plugging away on the 15th despite this setback, Crawford and her colleagues didn’t want to distract from the celebration. So they decided to postpone their shindig — though finding a replacement date in the busy fall social calendar wasn’t easy.

The group settled on November 11, a Wednesday. The good news about that date, says Crawford, is that it’s Veterans Day, so “now it’s got patriotic overtones.” In other words, the gala will still have attendees dressed in period clothes perusing an oyster bar and speakeasy in the company of local mucky-mucks — but now people can also dress up like period soldiers, with brass buttons and officer sashes galore.

Talk about making some lemonade when life gives you lemons. And, as Crawford notes, “If you’ve been in the development business as long as I’ve been in it, you learn how to squeeze lemons.”