Balls for a cause, dresses for less

WASHINGTON – The US economy may be in the doldrums, but revellers and gala organisers are celebrating the inauguration of Barack Obama with all the usual pizazz and glitz. They’re just doing it more frugally and tacking a message onto their celebrations.

At a charity shop in a Washington suburb, Christina Seneff was trying on gowns on Saturday to wear to the Blue Diamond Ball, a 500-dollar-a-ticket soiree being held to promote universal health care.
‘I don’t need anything new. And I’m a firm believer in recycling, clothes included,’ she told AFP as she tried on a pale blue satin dress, priced at 34 dollars but on sale for 75 per cent off.
With a bit of bling – also available in the charity shop, which benefits the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill – Seneff will look just the part for tonight’s ball, which will feature performances by singer-activist Jackson Browne and Graham Nash of the 1970s group Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Even event organisers are playing down the glitz and playing up a worthwhile cause.
‘These balls are incredibly expensive and people are saying, ‘Let’s scale back here and there because we want to have a platform, we want our message to go out, to be on the new administration’s first 100 days’ agenda,’ Nicole Gianturco said of Event Emissary, the company organising the Blue Diamond Ball and the Green Inaugural Ball, which promotes environmental causes.
‘But there’s also a genuine feeling of excitement among the planners and the people that are attending the balls. People are excited that their money is not just going toward an event planning company – it’s going to an issue they believe in,’ she said.
To press the message of the Green Ball, food and drink will be organic, sustainable and local; leftovers will be turned into compost at a small farm in Maryland; and five per cent of each 500- or 1 000-dollar ticket sold will be donated to non-profits.
The Arab-American community, which has been at the receiving end of discrimination in the United States since the attacks of September 11 2001, is also celebrating.
That’s nothing new – they have celebrated presidential inaugurations in the past – but this year ‘is the first time you might confuse it with a ball’, Nadine Wahab, public affairs manager at the Arab-American Institute told AFP.
‘Arab American engagement in this campaign was big and this is an extension of that. There’s a need for us to continue to be part of the political atmosphere in Washington, and these events are important for that,’ she said.
American-born queen Noor of Jordan, the widow of King Hussein, has confirmed that she will attend the inaugural celebration, Wahab said.
All the balls, official and unofficial, in Washington and elsewhere in the United States, will allow ‘everyone to celebrate the hard work that so many people put into getting this man elected’, said Lee.
‘But come Wednesday, let’s hold his feet to the fire on things he’s promised,’ she said.
At the NAMI charity shop, manager Rhona Sollod sorted through rhinestone jewellery for a client who was attending an inaugural ball.
‘I don’t think Obama will be able to turn around the economy that fast, but the spirit of the country is so much better,’ she said.
Obama-electricity was also rippling through a consignment shop in Washington where the elite shop to save money.
‘In the past week, there is so much electricity in this shop, my hair should be standing up in the air,’ owner Inga Guen said between serving customers.
‘We always celebrate a new president, but this time, we’re celebrating a rock star.’ – Nampa-AFP