2007

The first Gobble Wobble

A Thanksgiving-eve party thrown by Detroit natives home for the holiday. No mission statement, no board — just a room full of people who wanted to give something back to the city they grew up in.

2012

Two more traditions begin

Detroiters living elsewhere start throwing their own parties. The first Motown Throwdown lands in Chicago and the first Show Your Love for Detroit in New York — both of which become annual.

2013

Seventh annual Gobble Wobble

Seven straight Thanksgiving eves. By now the invitation goes out to a mailing list, not a group text.

october 2013

2014

Detroit’s diaspora goes to work

• 3rd Annual Show Your Love for Detroit at the Bowery Hotel, New York — with a silent auction (March)

• #NYC2DET Creative Caravan buses New Yorkers to the Detroit Design Festival (September)

• Get Down With Detroit (September)

• 3rd Annual Motown Throwdown in Chicago (October)

• 8th Annual Gobble Wobble (November)

2015

The auction goes online

Show Your Love for Detroit runs BARD's first online auction in the spring, opening the fundraiser to people who can't be in the room. The 4th Annual Motown Throwdown follows in the fall, then the 9th Annual Gobble Wobble in November.

milestones from the early years

Somewhere in this stretch: 400 guests at a single Gobble Wobble, a $10,000 grant to CATCH followed by $15,000 the next year, the 501(c)(3) filing, satellite chapters in New York and Chicago, the first $100,000 raised in a single year, a five-city network, and a $50,000 match for Detroit Achievement Academy.

2016

Ten years of Gobble Wobble

• 5th Annual Show Your Love for Detroit in New York — April 1

• Don't Stop the Music campaign (August–September)

• Vince x BARD shopping fundraiser (October)

• 10th Annual Gobble Wobble and Mix & Mingle (November)

2017

Eleven and counting

Show Your Love for Detroit runs a full spring campaign (March–April), Vince hosts BARD again in October, and the 11th Annual Gobble Wobble closes out the year.

2018

The Shirt Show, Los Angeles

BARD is the primary partner behind a night of improv in Los Angeles, produced with actor Marc Evan Jackson and The Detroit Creativity Project. Jackson brings his castmates from NBC's The Good Place — Kristen Bell, D'Arcy Carden, Jason Mantzoukas, Maribeth Monroe, Kirby Howell- Baptiste and Eugene Cordero — for a show built entirely from audience suggestions. Every dollar goes to The Improv Project, a free performing arts program for Detroit youth.

Earlier in the year, Vince hosts BARD for a third round of in-store fundraising (May).

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2018 · LOS ANGELES · DOORS AT 7PM

2019

Four events, two cities

• BARD x Blo Blow Dry Bar, Detroit (July)

• NYC Hype Party and Show Your Love for Detroit in New York (September)

• Intermix shopping event (October)

• Detroit Bus Company holiday ride (December)

2020

Feeding the front lines

• A February Detroit Bus Company ride, then the city shuts down. BARD

• pivots to Frontlines Food for Giving Tuesday Now in May, and closes the

• year with the Healthy Holiday Hustle in November and December.

2021

Fundraising from the living room

• Bigger Than A Bracket Challenge — March Madness pools for Detroit kids (March)

• Cocktail Master Class, virtual (May)

• NYC Tuffet happy hour (November–December)

2022

Back in the room

• Ralph Lauren x BARD (July)

• Detroit Homecoming (August)

• We He(ART) Detroit — the Thanksgiving tradition, renamed (November)

2023

A year of partners

• WolfGangGang Art Show and closing reception (January–March)

• Breitling Detroit grand opening (March)

• YouthTank Detroit tailgate party (October)

• We He(ART) Detroit at the Daxton Hotel — November 22

2024

Ralph Lauren and Parlay Detroit

A Ralph Lauren x BARD in-store shopping event on November 14, followed by We He(ART) Detroit with Parlay Detroit over Thanksgiving week.

2025

New York keeps the flame

The NYC Mixer & Watch Party brings the New York network back together on October 17.

2026

Over $1.2 million raised — and a night at the opera house

BARD is a sponsor of The Coney, a charity comedy night at the Detroit Opera House on September 26, during homecoming weekend. The event is presented by the Children's Foundation of Michigan — created with actor and Detroit Creativity Project founder Marc Evan Jackson — to build an annual source of funding for youth arts in Detroit, including the Detroit Creativity Project.

It's also a reconnection. The last time BARD worked with the Detroit Creativity Project was the Shirt Show stage in Los Angeles in 2018 — eight years on, BARD is back behind the same cause.

SEPTEMBER 25–26, 2026 · DETROIT OPERA HOUSE