For the 10th consecutive year, MINI is sponsoring Europe’s largest charity event for HIV/AIDS – Life Ball.

This time around, the company is auctioning off three specially designed vehicles on July 17th.

Francisco Costa of Calvin Klein will be designing the Mini Countryman, Diane von Furstenberg the Mini Hatch and Kenneth Cole the Mini Convertible.

All proceeds from the auction will benefit amfAR (the Foundation for AIDS Research).

The first Mini Life Ball charity took place in 2001 and since then, important fashion designers have presented special edition Mini Coopers to help raise funds.

Up until this point the Mini Life Ball charity managed to raise around EUR 500,000 with help from Missoni (2003), Ferre (2004), Versace (2005), Diesel and other fashion designers.

This year, the event will tie in with the 18th International AIDS Conference that starts in Vienna the next day.

“On 17th July, in addition to Vienna’s City Hall and City Hall Square, the Burgtheater with its Red Ribbon Cotillion Summer Ball and even the Austrian Parliament – which hosts the amfAR Gala – will be dedicated to the red ribbon cause,” a company statement reads.

The event will be centering around the “Sow the Seeds of Solidarity!” motto and the “Earth” theme, and will have the 2010 Life Ball “planting its seeds around the world wherever there is a real need.”

As with all the previous MINIs, the Life Ball MINI 2010 vehicles will be given in a prize draw to three lucky participants.

Source: Autoevolution