We’ve put the fun into fundraising for an interactive Saturday evening program July 19.
Our Aberdeen Recreation and Cultural Center ballroom will be decorated to an Emerald City theme; everyone is encouraged to dress up in your Ozian finery. Costumes—or clothing that at least suggests an Oz character, Emerald City green, or anything that expresses your Oz interests will do. Walking cyclones are welcome! Break out the poppy crowns and monkey wings. Just bear in mind you’ll be sitting and eating in whatever you choose, so maybe scale back on that Mr. Potatohead as the Tin Man idea this time.
After our meal we’ll hold our annual fundraising auction of Oz material. This will be our first dinner auction and our first evening auction, so we may need to tweak our traditions a bit. For example, it may be safest to leave your winning items on display tables instead of squeezing them in around dinner tables.
Another first: Jim Rutter, son of long-time Club member Dick Rutter, is stepping in to serve as our 2025 auctioneer. Susan Johnson and Alex Moore will form his experienced support team. Thank you Jim!
Dick Rutter as the Wizard lifting off in a hot air balloon at the Oz Club’s Centennial celebration in Bloomington, Indiana (2000).
Awards announcements follow (see last week’s blog) then it’s time for open mic might. Entirely optional, but if you’re willing, please prepare in advance to bring the Oz character or topic of your costume to the stage. Singers can sing. Storytellers can read or recite. Collectors can bring a show-and tell. Whether you come armed with a puppet, a poem, or a personal tribute, we’ll celebrate all things Oz—while incidentally collecting your auction payments.
Motivating us to make this evening a “masquerade” event is having Jim Rutter with us. His father has been as avid an Oz costume creator as there could be! In Dick’s honor we’ll serve up a collectible prize for favorite costume/performance entry in our open mic night.
