Some 800 guests converged on the Hyatt Regency for a gala to celebrate an auspicious birthday — Associated Black Charities' 25th.

"I'm thrilled that we've sold out, particularly in these [tough financial] times," said Diane Bell-McKoy. ABC's president/CEO was resplendent in a red satin gown as she and ABC board chairman Walter Amprey greeted people, many of whom had been coming to the organization's annual gala for years. Formally frocked folks mingled on the mezzanine enjoying drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and catching up with old friends, during the cocktail hour.

"It's always the last big event of the season and always a great party," noted Scot Spencer, Annie E. Casey Foundation manager of Baltimore relations.

Founding board member Dwight Taylor and his wife, Aileen Taylor, Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene administrator, immediately found a mezzanine full of familiar faces as they arrived for the cocktail hour.

"Twenty-five years, who would've thought it? It's wonderful to see the sustainability," he said as he gazed around the room.

That sentiment was shared by past board chairman Michael Cryor, there with his wife, Erica Cryor, Morgan State University development director.

"Twenty-five years is extraordinary. This organization has persevered through some very difficult times," Michael Cryor said.

New board member Mimi Roeder Vaughan made her way through the throng with Gary Maslan, Baltimore-based attorney.

Joe Haskins, Harbor Bank president/CEO, greeted friends on one side of the room. Meanwhile, a caucus of college presidents had formed on the other, as UMBC's Freeman Hrabowski, the Johns Hopkins University's Ron Daniels and Morgan State University's Earl Richardson seemed deep in conversation.

As the cocktail hour ended the doors to the hotel ballroom opened for the sit down dinner, revealing scores of dining tables decorated in red. The long evening of celebration had only just begun.

Sloane Brown can be reached at sloane@sloanebrown.com.