As I was talking to guests at the Ballet Ball recently, and everyone was congratulating chairwoman Lisa Hickok about the event netting a record-breaking $500,000, someone leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Just wait until the Lyric Opera Ball in April. I’ve heard they’re going to hit the biggie.”
I didn’t know what this woman meant by “the biggie,” so I asked her and she said, “At least a million. Probably more than $1 million, easy.”
The Lyric Opera Ball, which will take place April 12 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotel, is celebrating 50 years of opera in Kansas City and, like the Ballet Ball, indeed is hoping to break its own fundraising record this year.
Ball chairwoman Trudy Gabriel months ago met with the Lyric’s general director, Evan Luskin, and development director, Michelle LaPointe, and they came up with a great idea — to create a special patron giving level of $50,000 in honor of the opera’s 50th anniversary.
Little did they know that their idea for these “golden anniversary angels” would take off so splendidly.
So far the angels I know of include Ann Dickinson, Paul and Jody Bartlett, Anne and Howard Elsberry, Karen Pletz, Edward Milbank, Michael and Ginger Frost, Sarah and Landon Rowland, Jody Tillotson, Beth Ingram, Caroline French, Maureen and Richard Durwood, Bebe and Crosby Kemper Jr., Cliff Jones, Michael Fields, Roswitha and Kenneth Schaffer, Jane and Steve and Kyla Akin, Scott Lindsay, Frank and Evangeline Thompson, John Latshaw and Carol and C. Humbert Tinsman.
These patrons will be honored during the ball along with Julia Irene Kauffman’s foundation, which made an even bigger donation of $75,000 to the ball. So she’s now called a “diamond anniversary angel.”
On top of these patrons’ generous support, the ball will include a fabulous auction that is sure to bring in thousands upon thousands more dollars.
Gabriel is overwhelmed by the generosity, she said, and is looking forward to what will be one of the best nights of her life as the community reaffirms its commitment to the arts.
From left: Patty Horine, Goldie Arnold, Karen Schoettlin, Mia Blurton and Tiffany Timmons helped organize “A Chocolate A’furrrr,” a fundraiser to benefit the Northland Animal Welfare Society.
Actor John Lithgow was this year’s featured guest at the annual Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center hotel.
Estefany Gonzalez helps set the mood in the Crown Center Exhibition Hall for the annual Heart Ball.
Mike and Caylee Valentine show off their red in support of the annual Heart Ball, a benefit for the American Heart Association.
