Blue Jean Ball to Raise Funds for Child Advocacy Center
by AMANDA JENKINS Put on your best blue jeans and
come to the 5th Annual Blue Jean Ball Chair-ity Event on Saturday Oct. 1. This event supports the Child
Advocacy Center, which is geared toward creating a safe community for children. Some of the services they offer are forensic interviewing of child victims of abuse, victim advocacy services for the non-offending family members, child abuse and sexual abuse prevention programs, and an Internet safety program for both adults and children. "We want to make sure that they have all the needed resources in place," says Roberta Humphries, executive director of the Child Advocacy Center. The Blue Jean Ball kicks off at 7 p.m. and runs through 10 p.m. at the Highland Country Club. This dance is considered a multi-generational event that is put on for not only the children, but for their parents as well. "So it's not like just a youth party
where you take the kids, drop them off and go home," says Humphries. "It's for the parents as well. Children from fi fth to eighth grade are the recommended ages." Because the Child Advocacy
Center provides service for the youth, they decided to include children in the fundraiser to make it a more fun and casual event.
At the event there will be two
separate rooms for the children and the parents.
"In the ballroom there will be a DJ and activities for the youth so they'll have their own room," said Humphries, "There will also be a photo booth where the kids can get their pictures made, and they'll have
their own food." Aside from the children's room, the adults will have their own room with a separate band, cocktails and heavy hors d'oeuvres.
In addition to the dance, there will be a silent auction and then chairs that have been decorated by local artists will also be auctioned off. "There should be about 30 chairs," says Humphries. "They take all different kinds of chairs and stools and benches, whatever the artist wants to utilize, and then they create a piece of art out of it. That is where the 'chair' in the 'chair-ity' event comes from." These pieces of art are created by volunteers from the Boys and Girls Club, and in the past have also been painted by art classes at the high school.
"So it's all different types of people who just have a love for art and who want to help the children at the Child Advocacy Center," said Humphries.
"Last year we had around 300 people, between the youth and the adults, at the event," she said. You can help the Child Advocacy Center have another successful year promoting children's safety at the Blue Jean Ball. Rally the children up, slip into something casual and come prepared to dance, eat and listen to some live music for a good cause. Admission to the ball is $30 for youth tickets, and $50 for adult tickets. For more information, visit www. childadvocacycenter.com/BJB.htm.
AMANDA JENKINS, Contribut-
ing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com
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