Location: UIC Forum
Date: Saturday, May 11, 2013; 1:30-2:30 pm
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| I was going to the ball! |
I have been to some galas through
One Brick, but nothing was more appealing than going to Make-A-Wish Foundations
premiere fundraising event of the year – ‘Wish
Ball 2013’. It is the one night of
the year when MAW celebrate their success by inviting the ‘Wish Kids’ and also host a black-tie dinner event to raise
money. To be able to attend, you either
need to have a lot of money, or be invited as a volunteer. Even the latter is not a guarantee since it
is a very popular event and the volunteers are chosen through a lottery. As soon as the RSVP opened, I was the first
to respond, but that would amount to nothing and if I was to be picked, it
would be through a draw. Well, as
luck would have it, I was picked. I was
going to the ‘Wish Ball’. The name alone conjures up a magical
image.
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| Even 'Brooks Brothers' were in the act |
The first task was to arrange for
a black suit or tuxedo. Since I owned
neither, I had to go shopping one afternoon for a black suit, complete with a
black tie. I managed to find the right
one, though I still required a white shirt and so stopped by ‘Brooks Brothers’ on Michigan
Avenue. As soon as I entered the store,
I saw a poster with a ‘Make-A-Wish’
sign; since they were raising money for MAW as well and somehow it felt appropriate that I wear their
shirt to the event. The shopping done
weeks before the event, the next thing was to wait for my assignment. That was announced the week before and I was
supposed to be….the coat check person.
Having served in that role at a One Brick event, I knew that it would
involve a lot of waiting around and not much mingling. Plus, my duty was for the second shift that
was only supposed to start at 8:30 pm. I
wrote to Julie, the volunteer coordinator, and told her that I was willing to
come earlier and contribute in other areas - something that she appreciated a lot
and thanked me for my initiative. Plus, she said that she would take me up on my offer and find me some other tasks – perhaps
only because I told her that I had purchased a new suit and wanted to get
maximum mileage from it!
All the volunteers were asked to
sign-up for one of the three mandatory walkthrough sessions prior to the main
event, and I had chosen this Saturday. It was at UIC Forum, the same place where the Ball was going to be held. It was also UIC’s graduation day
and so not only did we have limited time for the walkthrough, the entire place
was crowded with students. As I went
inside I saw Michelle, whom I had met at an earlier MAW event and with whom I
had stayed in touch. Her wish partner
Sid was also there and he appeared to be a jovial person. While we waited for the organizers to get
settled, Michelle and I talked about the previous year’s event, which she had
attended and what we could expect this year.
We were all called to attention and told that this year the theme of the
Ball would be ‘Superheroes’ and the 6
invited ‘Wish Kids’ would be all
dressed in a cape. Each of them would
have a volunteer as an escort and those volunteers would be called ‘Wish Ambassadors’. Their job would be to accompany the kids
throughout the evening, especially when they helped the sell raffle tickets. Being a ‘Wish
Ambassador’ is something that I want to do for next year, meaning that I
should do everything to impress Julie this year!
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| Not ready for a ball at all |
The organizers went over the
evening’s agenda, which included a stand-up comedy routine by the chief
celebrity guest, Martin Short. It also had
a performance by ‘CircEsteem’ and I
was the only person amongst the volunteers, who had heard of them; having seen
a performance just recently. But
for me, the highlight of the evening was going to be a speech by two parents,
who had lost their son; and about his wish to meet Steve Carell on the set of the
TV show, ‘The Office’. The mom was now a ‘Wish Granter’ herself and was going to share the story with
everyone present. After discussing the
agenda, all of us were taken to the grand ballroom and it looked like a high
school gymnasium with stands and chairs.
Julie promised that it would clean up very well and magically transform
into a ballroom worthy of the occasion. With
this, the walkthrough was over and once again I told Julie that I would be
available to come earlier. As I left
UIC, with a week to go for the actual event, I realized how fortunate I was to
have been invited to volunteer and if that meant sitting by the coat-check room
for 3 hours, so be it. At least I would
be one of the most well-dressed coat-check people to have come to UIC!
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