PDX Comedy Throwdown provides much needed comic relief

People from all over the Portland Metro area turned out on the evening of Nov. 14 when the Home Builders Foundation opened its doors to the public for the first-ever PDX Comedy Throwdown event.Dwight Slade, winner of the 2008 Boston Comedy Festival, emceed the event, as well as comedians Virginia Jones, Dax Jordan, Don Frost and Kyle Harbert did showcases. The event, planned as a fundraiser by Home Builders Foundation Board Member Kevin Curry, was held at the HBA. Proceeds from the event went to benefit Cordero House, a $900,000 renovation project in Tigard.“We’re so grateful to have new and exciting ways to get people involved in supporting the Cordero House project,” said Melanie Duncan, HBF Executive Director. “We could all use some comic relief from time-to-time, and what better way to do it than with some of Portland’s top comedians.”The Cordero House project will be complete by January 2011, just in time for the boys who call Cordero House “home” to move in at the start of a new year in 2011. Once complete, 14 boys will call Cordero House their home. Their fresh start for the year will include a new, large family treatment room, remodeling of the kitchen and dining area, increasing storage, upgrading appliances, expansion of the rear porch area to accommodate a new therapist office and bathroom, two additional bedrooms and accompanying shower units and reconfiguration of two new building entrances, as well as a new covered porch.“All of the funds raised at the PDX Comedy Throwdown event will be directly contributed to the renovation project. My hope is to make this an annual event and based on the response from those attending this year, I think it will be a popular annual event,” said Kevin Curry.