Community Comes Out for Mayor's Ball

More than 200 people danced the night away while raising money for Oddfellows Playhouse at the Mayor's Ball on Saturday night.

Stiltwalkers and jugglers mixed with the mostly black-tie crowd at St. Clement's Castle. All the focus was on helping Oddfellows continue their good works with young people, while they recover from the loss of their costume collection in the building collapse of 505 Main on February 2nd.

Fortunately, it was a generous crowd. During a brief but hard-fought auction, bidding rose to $375 for a fanciful chocolate centerpiece, created by Tschudin Chocolates of Main Street. (The winner, Mrs. J.R. Marino, proved doubly generous when she broke up the centerpiece and passed it around to the neighboring tables.)

Caricature artist Bill Dougal had a steady stream of customers as party-goers sat for their portrait - I thought he did a nice job capturing one Middletown Eye reader in particular - that's Greg Harris on paper.

The biggest donors of the evening were undoubtedly the folks from Pratt & Whitney, who were one of the lead sponsors of the Mayor's Ball. Moved by the predicament of the youth theater, they offered a challenge of $15,000, pledging to match donations that come to the theater over the next year, up to that amount. By my unofficial count, it looked like Oddfellows was well on their way with at least $2,000 in gifts raised on the spot.

By the way, the local blosphere was well-represented at the Ball - that's Cathy Branch-Stebbins, on the right, getting a photo of the P&W sponsors and Oddfellows leadership for Patch.com.

Aside from doing good, the Mayor's Ball was a great party and the dance floor was packed. I personally witnessed a city director dancing (briefly) on his chair. As long as you didn't mind shouting in your neighbor's ear, it was also a chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

Sometimes it was both old and new - Tina (seated below) looked familiar to me, and we quickly figured out that we had been in Lamaze classes together just about 19 years ago. Small world.

More than a few in the crowd mixed their philanthropy with other hobbies, using their hand-held technology to keep tabs on the UCONN game. The victory of the home team was announced by the singer from the band "Prelude" over the intro of a song.

The co-chairs of the event, Town Clerk Sandra Russo-Driska and City Treasurer Christine Bourne, have been working on the event since last October. Sandra noted that she figured the Mayor had asked them to do the job just to prove that a Republican and a Democrat CAN work together, which got a big laugh. The Mayor's Ball had a record attendance this year, and they were able to give a $13,000 giant check to Oddfellows (that doesn't include any of the Pratt & Whitney matching gift!).

And now, a few photos for the Society Page of the Middletown Eye (with captions!):


Bobbye Knoll of the North End Action Team (and mother of expert juggler Evan Knoll) with Oddfellows Artistic Director Jeffrey Allen


Frank Kuan from Wesleyan, Lisa and Bob Santangelo (the sole attending Democratic councilman), and Mike DiPiro from Guilmartin, DiPiro, Sokolowski CPA. (That's my prankster spouse, who should know better, making bunny ears in the background.)


Middletown Mayor Seb Giuliano with Meriden Mayor Mike Rohde, who attended with his wife Nancy.


Melissa (right) and I tried to recruit Allison to write for the Eye....although readers are nice too.


Oddfellows Board President Mike Sciola and partner Frank Kuan.


A close-up of the Oddfellows-inspired centerpiece created by Tschudin Chocolates of Main Street, Middletown.