Tuesday night's Mardi Gras Ball, a fund-raiser for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago, featured Cajun and Creole cuisine, Hurricane cocktails, and a Dixieland jazz band. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that the event's inspiration has its roots in Pittsburgh.
Stevie Ball, the Epilepsy Foundation's vice president of development, explained, "The chairman of our board came to Chicago from Pittsburgh. We have an affiliate there that has a big Mardi Gras event each year." Realizing that Chicago had no comparable tradition, "we thought, 'Why don't we start one? It will be fun,'" Ball said, "and we patterned our event after Pittsburgh's."
After selecting the Fairmont Chicago Hotel as the venue, Ball and her planning team sought out vendors that would help them create an authentic-feeling Mardi Gras experience. "We wanted to have the essence of Bourbon Street, not another speeches-and-rubber-chicken dinner," she said.
About a year ago, when the planning process began, Ball connected with event designer Daniel Simonelli of Daniel's Discriminating Floriculture. "We talked to Daniel about a budget that was barely existing then—and you can imagine what's happened in the last three months," Ball said. "I never saw Daniel sweat." Instead, he cut corners where he could, finding creative alternatives for costly design elements. For example, instead of towering floral arrangements, dinner tables featured tall, glossy vases bearing feathers and silk butterflies.
In the end, Ball said, planning the Mardi Gras Ball in the current economic climate taught her the importance of working with vendors who enjoy problem-solving. "This is such an extraordinary time," she said. "In the nonprofit world, we really do have a problem. Vendors have to be willing to put on their hats and think, 'How can we make this work [with this budget]?'"
Of course, the foundation also needed donors' support, and that's when connections came in handy. "We really pushed our planning committee and board members to talk to folks and get them to the event," Ball said. After sending out a paper invite six weeks before the happening—and an electronic follow-up some weeks later—Ball got feedback that taught her a lesson about roping-in attendees. "Always put a committee member's name on the top of a return address," she said. "Some people said that if they hadn't recognized a name on the envelope, they may have accidentally tossed the invite."
Ultimately, some 380 guests attended the $300-a-head happening, which "is very good for a first-time event," Ball noted. "It's interesting to see how loyal our donors are. They have strong feelings about epilepsy, and they put a high value on the work that the foundation does."
