Nestled at the feet of the glittering high-rise Art Deco hotels lining Miami Beach are private homes not unlike Casa Casuarina, the fabled Versace mansion—and it was at one such lushly-landscaped Mediterranean estate that SOBAP (South Beach AIDS Project) hosted its annual kick-off to this year’s edition of Winter Party Festival with a catered cocktail affair for LGBT community leaders and their friends.  Since its inception, SOBAP has served the needs of the LGBT community by providing prevention, education, care and testing services to the underserved and minority communities of Miami-Dade and Broward counties—and as Winter Party Chair Chad Richter so eloquently reminded all of us, it’s our responsibility to insure that our fellow revelers leave with a condom in their pockets.  Wandering the labyrinthine pathways through the manicured grounds were south Florida luminaries such as WIRE publisher Thomas Barker, photog Dale Stine, choreographer Octavio Campos, DJ Sayho, ECOMB director Luiz Rodriques, Sobegayinfo boys Doug and Josh, former Winter Party chair JC Curry, Task Force honchos Michael Bath, Dave Cook, Alex Breitman, and Russell Roybal, Greatpartypics Parzham and August, and our hosts, the gentlemanly triumvirate, Gary, Billy and Luis of SCORE fame. What better way to welcome another Winter Party Festival than to commingle in tropical splendor for a generous and worthy cause.