We held our exclusive Centenary Ball on Saturday 13th October at the Hilton Hotel, Bournemouth. The prestigious 100th Anniversary celebration raised a phenomenal £22,705 on the night: an incredible amount and also the most that we have ever raised in one event!
The event was kindly sponsored by our long-running supporter Blue Sky Financial Planning and saw over 160 guests to celebrate an impressive 100 years of Dorset Blind Association, with guests arriving in their finest dinner suits and posh frocks to a red carpet welcome complimentary glass of champagne, followed by a three-course dinner with wine and coffee.
The Centenary celebrations were thoroughly embraced by our guests, who tried their hands at the Viva Las Vegas Casino, danced the night away to the fantastic sounds of Swing Unlimited Big Band and participated in the accompanying raffle and auction. To get the guests up and moving after dinner, a fun and thoroughly entertaining game of Heads or Tails was played to music.
Guests had the opportunity to meet our patrons, Lord and Lady Julian and Emma Fellowes, and DBA President, James Weld. On display was an exhibition of Dorset Blind Association’s extensive history, featuring a timeline of the most important milestones in the past 100 years.
Jonathan Holyhead, Chief Executive Officer of Dorset Blind Association, said:
“The evening was a wonderful, happy way to help celebrate our centenary. I am absolutely thrilled by the amount raised and I cannot thank people enough for their generosity. This money will go towards the provision of future services and support for blind and partially sighted people across Dorset, so a great many people will benefit from it and on their behalf I want to say “thank you”, again, to everyone who helped make the Ball such a huge success.”
We have held our annual Ball for 4 years, and will be returning with the Masquerade theme next year on Saturday 26th October. Get the date in your diary now so you won’t miss out on this spectacular event!
Photographs are available here.