Okay, let’s get this off our chest right now. In the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control, the highest rates of new AIDS diagnoses in the United States were in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. CareResource is the largest HIV/AIDS service organization serving the Miami-Dade-Broward counties. And Sunday night’s Noche Blanca at Cameo was the penultimate event of a nearly weeklong series of parties to help raise funds to serve the needs of our HIV-positive brothers and sisters. It’s that simple.

Or maybe it’s as simple as one of the placards placed over the urinals: CHEERS. HERE’S TO HIV AND A LIFETIME OF COCKTAILS.

Each of us in the community makes a choice—and fortunately, those with the smarts were in evidence all over Cameo. The newly refurbished and locally loved uber-club was packed with industry heavies, local legends, circuit stars, and hottie posses. With Michael Stanley on the door (resplendent in leopard, working it “For the children,” as he said), we knew we were in the right place. We parked ourselves on the mezzanine above the new hemispheric disco ball deejay booth—and here’s who we saw at first glance: Joe Gauthreaux, Sin Morera, Phil B, Twisted Dee, Patti Razetto, Victor and Shane, Billy and Luis of Score, Karen and Michelle, Kidd Madonny, Hilton and Mel, Ross Berger on lights, and Kyle Garner on lasers, and in the booth, Manny Lehman finishing his set while Abel leaned against the railing awaiting his moment. Hello? All aboard? It certainly seemed that way. Anybody who was anybody…

The club looks great. Much to the relief of many, the railing around the dance floor has been removed, broadening the space. No more freefalls up the step, no more flat on the face. Manny was throwing down Ultra’s “Automatic,” somehow perfectly appropriate, given how Cameo and its smoothly professional staff enable you to sink right into the groove, totally automatic.

All across the floor, boyz were galloping like ponies across the plains. There was Gorm and Tod, Doug and Josh, Alex and Michael, Chad and Leo—and the black cowboy on the box whipping his horsey…

High above the floor, thanks to RKM, hung white billowing satin scrims and a galaxy of white spangled atomic orbitals—or as Manny plated it, “I’m Just Spinning Around.” He threw down Thunderpuss’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”—and then eased off a song halfway to lead the applause for the switchover to Abel who joined him in the booth.

And right where Manny left off, Abel picked it up—and raced with it. He dropped “Let Me See You Shake” just where Manny had left it—and served the boyz his first challenge. Let me see you shake, motherfuckers. Work it out on this new floor. With a seriously chugging bassline and an echoing chamber of wailing vocals, Abel sized up the house and made Cameo his latest home.

And with wunderkind Ross Berger on the lights, joined by Kyle Garner on lasers, the house quickly became a shape-shifting, astral plane, a veritable cosmos unto itself—and all designed to “Make You Feel Real Good.” It don’t get better than that.

Or so we thought—until suddenly the lights rose on the upper mezzanine, revealing Power pressed against the glass, a vision in white satin and brilliant bougainvillea fuchsia. Joined by her boyz, Power worked it out to the song of the weekend, Solange’s “Sandcastle Disco.” You know—the one about blowing: “Ba-ba-ba-baby, I know. Don’t blow me away. Don’t blow me, baby.” With its feel-good vibe and its ’70 soul hook, the song was perfect for Power's pantherine grace—and she and her back-up boyz descended the stairs, disappearing into the wings—before materializing seconds later, amidst the applause and cheers, atop a box in the center of the dance floor. How’d they do that? From way up there—to all the way down there? The three of them on a box like a chimerical miracle—working the song all over as the nitrogen blasts blew over the crowd—and they were gone again.

Now that’s a performance. Or as Abel put it, “The Drama Starts Here.”

It was that kind of night, where “Playing With My Mind” seemed perfectly chosen—as did “Put Your Hands Up” and “I Just Want Him To Know.” And when there was a pause, a dramatic segue from one piece to the next, the crowd cheered. It was an Abel family reunion.

And it was a brilliant party produced by Hilton Wolman and Cameo—to benefit CareResource and their work in serving the HIV-positive community of south Florida. For as all of us know, where there’s family, there’s strength.