ssistance League member and past Headdress Ball co-chair Margie Arnett models a headdress in the League’s 2014 Headdress Ball. As the Rotary Club’s guest speaker on Monday, March 28, she shared that this year’s ball will be held April 30 at the National Orange Show.
The Highland Rotary Club spent its Tuesday evening, March 28, learning about the production and purpose behind the Assistance League of San Bernardino’s annual Headdress Ball from guest speakers and Assistance League members Margie Arnett and Heidi Vazquez.
The ball is a dinner and show with 10 musical performances featuring choreographed dancing by models in large and elaborately decorated headdresses. The headdresses range in height from five to 10 feet, each weighing 25 to 35 pounds. With the headdresses anchored by braces attached to their backs and hips, it takes the models 16 weeks of training to learn to walk and dance in choreographed numbers while in costume.
“I tell people the ball is a mashup of a talent show and the Rose Parade,” said Arnett who was a model in 2014 and will be again for this year’s ball.
This year’s theme is “Ballroom Blitz,” highlighting different types of ballroom dance.
The event raises money and awareness for the League’s two main service projects, the Dr. Earl R. Crane Children’s Dental Health Center and Operation School Bell.
The dental center, established in 1949, provides low cost dental services for children whose families are uninsured or under insured while Operation School Bell provides clothing, shoes and hygiene products to children in need.
“One of our big goals is to get a toothbrush in every kid’s hand,” said Arnett, an associate professor at the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry. “There’s great need as far as dentistry goes.”
A few years ago Arnett teamed with the Assistance League in a research project that surveyed first grade classes in San Bernardino City Unified School District while issuing oral hygiene kits.
“In the end about 10 percent of the kids did not have a toothbrush and 15 percent were sharing (which is bad),” Arnett said. “And when we compared the five schools in Highland with the schools in San Bernardino the Highland schools were worse.”
Arnett stressed that cavities and other oral health problems are preventable and that issuing toothbrushes and informing kids about the importance of oral hygiene is important to student’s lives.
The League uses the selection of its ten models as a way to honor women who dedicate themselves to benefiting the community.
This year’s models are: Arnett; Jordan Boom, Cause for San Bernardino Paws; Kathy Callihan, Benevolent Order of Elks #836; former Olympian June Collison, Community Hospital of San Bernardino Foundation; Veronica Costello, Disabled American Veterans Chapter 12; Donna Hoffmann, Les Confreres Auxiliary; Kristine Smith, Les Confreres Auxiliary; and Assistance League members Sherry Lopez, Lillian Pedroza and Kim Robel.
The ball will be held at the National Orange Show on April 30 with a lunch show and a dinner show. Individual tickets are $75 for the matinee and $150 for the evening show while tables of 10 are $750 for the matinee and $1,500 for the evening show.
The ball raised over $120,000 last year and the League has set a goal of raising over $100,000 again this year.
For sponsorship opportunities or to make a reservation, call (909) 862-0732.
