Just the night before, the 2024 Crystal Charity Ball leadership had held a dinner for the past ball chairs at Arlington Hall sponsored by Bank of America. Less that 18 hours later on Wednesday, May 22, 2024 CCB Chair Cheryl Joyner and her team were at ChefCrystal C Abraham Salum‘s Salum Restaurant to sorta play games.
With a working theme of Game Changer, they had opted on announcing the halfway results of the fundraising with a wink and a nod to the theme.
Immediately upon arrival, it was pretty obvious that the announcements would be playful. One clue was the Kate Spade New York Fortune Favors Embellished 3D Crossbody purse that Underwriting Chair Jennifer Dix had discovered. Buying the purse for herself, she couldn’t resist getting a second one for Cheryl.
After the room was filled and guests, including the class of 2024 new members (Katy Bock, Andrea Cheek, Isabell Novakov Higginbotham, Christa Sanford, Megan Steinbach, Caroline Snell Wagner and Nikki Webb), had taken their seats, Cheryl welcomed the group and thanked Abraham Salum and his staff. For the occasion, Abraham had prepared a menu including chicken roulade stuffed with mozzarella and pesto and baby green sales with baby heirloom tomatoes and citrus vinaigrette. For dessert, it was an Italian Cream Cake that was one of Cheryl’s favs.
Then with little fanfare, Cheryl welcomed the committee chairs to reveal the top producers so far into the year. From the back of the room paraded Jennifer, Foundations Chair Candace Winslow, Silent Auction/Special Gifts Co-Chairs Lindsay Ballotta and Shannon Graham and Children’s Book Chair Anne McPherson, all wearing colorful Price Is Right placards to reveal the following results:
Underwriting
- Most Dollars In – Beth Thoele
- Most Contracts In – Mary Martha Pickens
- New Members With Most Dollars In – Caroline Snell Wagner
Children’s Book
- Most Contracts In – Suzy Gekiere, Linda Secrest, Libby Allred and Susan Glassmoyer
Silent Auction/Special Gifts Awards
- Most Dollars In and Most Contracts in – Victoria Snee
- New Member With Most Dollars In – Andrea Cheek
- Contract With Highest Value – Kim Quinn
Foundations
- Most Dollars Awarded – Anne Besser
- Most Applications Written – Alicia Wood
But once the luncheon was finished, the committee got back to work to raise $7,093,665 for the 2024 CCB beneficiaries (Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Methodist Health System Foundation, Parkland Health Foundation, The Center for Integrative Counseling and Psychology, Traffick911 and Vogel Alcove).
Come Saturday, December 7, they’ll celebrate a game-changing year.
In the meantime, check out the Midpoint moments at MySweetCharity Photo Gallery.