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COME ONE, COME ALL TO THE POPCORN BALL
A Circus of Delights
The Greatest Benefit on Earth

What:

A benefit your members and friends won't soon forget that can raise a large sum of money for your charity. Using the always fun circus theme that brings out the kid in everyone, you'll entertain your guests from the moment they walk in the door until they leave. They'll clown around and have three rings of fun all for a good cause-and have the memories to prove it.

How:

Guests step right up to a fabulous BIG TOP of delights that includes much more than you usually find under the Big Top. The Center Ring should be filled with cocktails and clowns, hors d'oeuvres on the high wire and silent auction acrobatics. Guests can have their likeness made into a clown caricature, get circus fancies painted on their faces or treat themselves to circus-style peanuts and popcorn.

Photo opportunities abound. Guests can poke their heads into the likeness of any number of clowns, the strong man or the bearded lady…for a small donation, of course.

A fabulous sit-down dinner can include tableside entertainment from some of your local and best performers and a "clowning around" photo competition with prizes for the table who submits the best group photos of their tablemates. Dinner should be followed by a dessert buffet that includes cotton candy for all plus dancing to the delightful sounds of a live band.

To make sure your tables are full, consider honoring one or more distinguished individuals who have made unique contributions to your cause.

Decorations:

There are great clown balloons that are 36 inches tall. These make for great centerpieces. To make sure you don't block guests from seeing each other, use a large popcorn box and tie the clowns off a weight but make sure your decorator puts at least 18" of ribbon as a lead. The room will look great especially if the ceilings are high!

One other thing. Save money by using white tablecloths and putting 2 inch and 4" colored dots on the tables. These can be cut out of sticky-back paper or you can buy them on that static cling plastic used on windows. A lot less money than colored linens and at the same time, useful for your guests to decorate themselves for the photo competition mentioned above.

Activities:

Cocktail hour is filled with playful fun. But the best is yet to come. When guests get to their dinner tables, ask everyone to pay attention. At each table, place a Polaroid One-Shot or a Spectra camera that produces instant pictures. As well, have a display board ready with the table number written across the top. Give each table 10 minutes to clown around and take creative and original pictures of each other posing, etc. Anything can be used as a prop (including the centerpiece or the dots on the tables)! At the end of 10 minutes, collect all the displays and give them to a panel of judges. The table that is most creative wins! Get prizes donated from local merchants.

Fundraising Components:

• Silent Auction…If you have a lot of people in a room, you should definitely have a silent auction. Put together a committee to approach local merchants as well as board members and others to donate vacation homes, products and services. Tie in the Popcorn Ball theme when you write the descriptions (e.g., you'll have a ball clowning around on this trip for four to the zoo with dinner following at…)
• Program Book…Sell advertisements to local merchants as well. They will get great visibility and good will throughout the community by supporting your event-make sure to tell them that!
• Raffle…Get a great prize donated. Sell raffle tickets during cocktail hour and also from table to table. You could make another $500 or $1000 this way.
• Photo Opportunities…those shots listed above are great ways to fundraise. Don't charge a lot but do charge $2 or $3 a photo. Every little bit helps!

This is a fun event. Adults are just big kids. Play into it, let them clown around and they'll be back for more next year!

You can price tickets in the range of $250 for patrons (Trapeze Artists), $125 for donors (Jugglers) and $100 for those under $35 (Jr. Juggler). Creative black tie or clown attire should be optional and parking should be made for the higher ticket prices.

The Party Girl

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