RUSSELLVILLE — The Junior Auxiliary of Russellville’s charity ball on Saturday isn’t just going to be a Mardi Gras-themed party. “It’s going to be an immersion experience,” co-chairwoman Holly Pace said.
The Children’s Benefit Ball 2017, Mardi Gras Masquerade, is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, and the party will go until 12:30 a.m., with dinner, dancing, and live and silent auctions. Tickets to the event, at $80 each or $150 per couple, are available online at jarussellville.org/tickets.
Pace said the L.V. Williamson Boys & Girls Club, 600 E. 16th St., will be transformed with fountains, ironwork, bricks and beads to look like New Orleans.
“This year, you’re going to walk in, and you’re going to feel, hopefully, like you’re on Bourbon Street,” Pace said.
She said Junior Auxiliary of Russellville President Beth Giroir (pronounced jer-wah) and her husband, Chris, are from New Orleans.
“She really wanted a New Orleans theme, and we just think it’s going to be so much fun,” Pace said.
“Our music is going to be from the Jazz Reunion, and the Jazz Reunion is made up of alumni and current professors who are participating in the Arkansas Tech jazz band, so we really tried to pull local, local, local for everything we’re doing,” she said.
The band will play when the doors open, and later in the evening, attendees will take to the dance floor to the music of House George Productions, a local DJ, she said.
Dinner will be served at 7, Pace said, an “authentic Cajun meal and authentic Cajun desserts,” provided by Blue Willow Catering and Event Co. and The Cake Place.
Kristin Foster, public relations chairwoman, said there will be a pool tournament during the evening, and prizes will be awarded.
After dinner, about 8:15 p.m., the live auction will begin, and those auction items are “amazing,” Foster said.
Pace said the 50 members of the Junior Auxiliary start months before the event to get the packages together. She said her favorite is a girls trip to New York City, which includes round-trip airfare to New York City and a three-night weekend stay at the Hilton Midtown; and a $1,000 shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue for two with a private shopper.
Before the auction winner leaves town, though, she will receive $1,500 in-store credit to Leaning Willow to buy clothes and accessories in Russellville for two, and salon services from Serenity Skin Care and Salon.
Other packages include Let the Good Times Roll in New Orleans, a four-day, three-night stay; an All-American Girl mother-daughter trip; a Wrigley Field Rooftop Experience; a seven-day, six-night trip to Walt Disney World over the Fourth of July with accommodations on the property; a five-night “second-honeymoon” trip to Costa Rica; and Charleston, South Carolina, and Steam Boat Springs, Colorado, getaways. All trips include airfare, Pace said. Nontravel packages include a local photography session; orthodontic work; and Spruce Up a Room, with carpet, accessories, a decorator’s help and more.
The charity ball isn’t just a party; it’s vital to the organization, Pace and Foster said.
“This is our biggest fundraiser; we pull the majority of our money for the entire year from this event,” Pace said.
Foster said the event brings in $60,000 to $90,000 a year to fund projects that focus on “at-risk children” and senior citizens.
“Our child-welfare projects are pretty special,” Pace said.
For example, the Junior Auxiliary has a school emergency fund, she said, and works with the school counselors.
“I have a counselor at the high school who will call and say, ‘I’ve got a kid who showed up today with no shoes, no clothes — they got kicked out of their house — and they need a coat; it’s cold,’” she said. The counselor will provide sizes, and a JA member will go buy clothes and shoes for the student.
“Last year, 2016, I did that six times, and I only have one grade at the high school,” Pace said. Sometimes the situation may be a house fire, or a single mother whose electricity was turned off, and Junior Auxiliary will pay the deposit to get it turned on.
“We know if the counselors call us, ‘Here’s a mom who needs help,’ they’ve already done the vetting for us.”
Another popular project with JA members is Lunch Buddies. “We love that; it’s really fun,” she said.
Each Junior Auxiliary member is assigned a student at one of two participating elementary schools, Oakland
Heights and Dwight. JA members sit with students at lunch a minimum of seven times throughout the year. Pace said the school to which she is assigned allows lunches to be brought in. Her assigned child had never been to Chick-fil-A, so she took a meal from that restaurant to the child one day.
“Last month was his birthday. I went and took him cupcakes and sat with him,” she said. “In his circumstances, he wouldn’t have had anybody.”
Jullie Campbell, counselor at Oakland Heights Elementary School, praised the program.
“The students are always excited to have their lunch buddies show up, and it’s a moment in time when they are the focus of an adult’s attention and create a special friendship,” Campbell said. “Sometimes kids just need that extra attention, and I think that’s the key to the program.”
Campbell said the students selected aren’t necessarily at-risk students.
“A lot of criteria are considered. … It depends on the child’s personality,” she said. “Sometimes you have kids who really are not at risk, except they’re shy, and that adult helps bring them out of that. Sometimes it just helps kids develop more social skills.”
Pace said Junior Auxiliary members also serve meals at the senior center at Thanksgiving and Christmas. “Those are so popular; there’s always a waiting list. Everybody wants to serve,” she said.
The group also sponsors the summer reading program at the Pope County Library in Russellville.
“Their funding was cut last year. … This year, we’ve seen more needs. We try to supplement them where we can,” she said.
A full list of the Junior Auxiliary’s projects can be found at www.jarussellville.org.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.