As foreplay to Adoption Awareness Month, the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) held its annual Angels in Adoption Award gala, October 4. The Angels in Adoption Awards have become a formulaic adoption love-fest, praising an industry no politician dares to regulate, with the occasional celebrity to give the gala an aura of importance.
This year, CCAI was able to book Kristin Chenoweth and Rhea Perlman, to honor them with an award. Over the years, CCAI has given awards to celebrities such as Rosie O’Donnell, Bruce Willis, Muhammad Ali, Jane Seymour, Patti LaBelle and in 2005, CCAI was even able to get the First Lady to accept an Angel in Adoption Award.
The gala is of course not only a meet and greet with celebrities, it is also a means for certain industries to approach lawmakers. Boeing, Target, 3M and the American Chemistry Council were cheap dates, going for the $5,000 table. BP, Disney, Textron and PhRMA had more money to burn, booking the $10,000 table. Chevron, Exxon Mobil, FedEx and Mortgage Insurance Company of America coughed up $25,000 each, to have access to the congress men and women participating in the event, while the Freddy Mac Foundation and the American Petroleum Institute even paid undisclosed amounts in excess of $50,000 for their tables.
For some reason the energy sector had a huge interest in the plight of "orphans", with further tables sold to: Marathon Oil Company, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Duke Energy, Entergy and Palo Verde Oil.