2024 Avivo Night of Champions Speakers and Entertainment
Join us for Avivo Night of Champions – an annual fundraiser and magical evening of honoring community champions and raising funds for Avivo’s life-changing services. We will be presenting the 2024 Avivo Champion Awards to recipients, honoring their longstanding dedication and support. Guests will enjoy a reception with live music, appetizers, cash bar, silent auction, and games, before dinner and a program of inspiring speakers and entertainers.
VIP Admission gives access to all General Admission benefits, plus an exclusive pre-event reception that includes wine, beer, soft drinks and appetizers, as well as free parking. This benefit offers the opportunity to meet and talk to community champions from all walks of life, as well as meet other influential people who are passionate about Avivo’s work.
Event Emcee
Reg Chapman
Reporter, WCCO
Reg Chapman came to WCCO from WNBC-TV in New York City where he covered an array of stories including the Coney Island, N.Y., plane crash and 50 shots fired at motorist Sean Bell by New York Police. Prior to that, Reg was a crime beat reporter at KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. He also reported at WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh, PA, where he covered the crash of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001. Before that, Reg was a reporter/anchor for WHIO-TV in Dayton, Ohio, WOWT-TV in Omaha, Nebraska, and KTIV-TV in Sioux City, Iowa.
A Gulf War veteran, Reg graduated from the University of Nebraska-Omaha where he earned a bachelor of science degree in broadcast journalism. He has received the Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting, several Associated Press awards, honors from the Society of Professional Journalists, and the YMCA honored him as a Black Achiever.
Event Entertainment
Harley Wood
Vocalist, performer, and songwriter
Harley Wood is an accomplished vocalist, performer and songwriter. He has extensive experience in stage and studio production, engineering, choreography, working as a band leader and performer, with an impressive collaborative list of established artists and entertainers.
He has training in theatre, voice and stage performance (solo and collaborative), and he is a self-taught musician including acoustic and electric guitar, bass, percussion and keyboard instrumentation.
Tommy Barbarella
Musician
Best known for his extensive work with Prince in the 1990’s, Barbarella’s
reputation for excellence and versatility extended over the following 2 decades by
touring, recording and performing with the likes of Art Garfunkel, Mavis Staples,
Jonny Lang, Nick Jonas, Italian superstar Giorgia and Minneapolis supergroup
Greazy Meal.
He has contributed his talents to Hollywood features by iconic directors
like Spike Lee, Robert Altman and Marc Forester, as well as composing
award-winning commercial tracks for Nike, Budweiser, Audi and hundreds of others.
A veteran of touring and playing live, Barbarella is also a first-call session
musician. His keyboard work can be heard on recordings by artists as diverse as
Demi Lovato, Switchfoot, Backstreet Boys, Ziggy Marley, Love & Rockets, David
Sylvian, Miley Cyrus, Daniel Powter, Mandy Moore and many more.
As a frequent arranger and performer with the Minnesota Orchestra, Tommy’s
worlds came together in September of 2016 when the Orchestra performed his
arrangement of Prince’s “Purple Rain” at the stunning halftime show of the
Minnesota Vikings inaugural game at U.S. Bank Stadium. More recently, his
“Symphony of the North” collaboration with the Minnesota Orchestra and The
Minnesota Vikings won BEST SHOW OPEN at the annual Golden Matrix Awards
2022.