Transylvania’s Children’s Center to host holiday gala Dec. 1

Press release from event organizers:

The Children’s Center of Transylvania County is moving its annual holiday season gala Dec. 1 to the largest venue since its Festival of Trees days and adding a local pop vocalist entertain diners.

The event is the non-profit organization’s main fundraiser to support its programs for abused and neglected children.

For more than 20 years its Festival of Trees featured a display of brightly decorated Christmas trees and ushered in each holiday season at Silvermont, the historic 33-room mansion on East Main Street. Since that tradition ended five years ago, the Center’s holiday fundraisers have been held at smaller venues.

“But this year we’re moving to bigger accommodations, the Masonic Lodge, on East Main Street, close to the center of town,” said Marilyn Stifflear, who heads the Center’s fundraising efforts. “The large space will be gaily decorated and give us plenty of room for everyone to enjoy the activities we’re planning.”

One of the highlights of those activities will be entertainment by native son Walter Norman, a former Brevard policeman who’s been singing as an avocation all his life. He’s volunteering his act, featuring familiar pop classics of the past, hits from the likes of Tony Bennett, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and Nat King Cole.

“It’ll be a lot of fun,” said Norman, who lives in Pisgah Forest. “The type of music I do is kind of jazz slash big band, the music that everyone loves.” Norman, 65, is a tenor who can still hit falsetto notes when called for, just like he could, he says, when he was a teen-ager in a small band named the “Lighter Shades of Soul” back in the 60s at Brevard High School.

A start to the season

The gala is called “A Snowflake Ball” and being on Dec. 1 it will once again be among the first of the county’s holiday events. Dec. 1 is a Thursday, preceding the following weekend’s Twilight Tour, a major seasonal event in Brevard.

The Center has sent out invitations to past donors and is also taking reservations from the general public. They are available by calling its headquarters at 885 7286. Single admission is $60.

The event will include a buffet sit-down dinner offering appetizers, shrimp and grits, brisket and a cold carrot salad called “copper pennies.” Everything will be prepared by volunteers, said Stifflear, with the main entrée a specialty of Scott and Jennifer Bradenburg, former owners of the Square Root Restaurant in Brevard. Sparkling cider and coffee will be the beverages.

Norman, who has been entertaining since he was a small boy, performs in a tuxedo before a backdrop he calls his “Silhouette Orchestra,” which consists of stand-up cutouts of musicians. The real music behind his voice comes from recordings, he winks, and he has a repertoire of some 50 songs.

Stifflear says she expects the audience to enjoy listening as much as Norman enjoys singing. “We’ll be inviting them to sing along with a few of the selections or get up and dance to all of them,” she said.

The Masonic Lodge’s downstairs space will be lavishly decorated with items volunteers have been making since early spring, Stifflear said. “The décor will be black and white, with splashes of red and lots and lots of snowflakes… for a feeling of elegance, with a whimsical touch, too.”

Ten six- and eight-foot Christmas trees will be on display, each fully decorated by volunteer individuals and organizations. The locally grown cut trees have already been sold to help raise more funds and will be delivered after the gala.

The evening event will run from 6 to 9 and during that time the Center’s volunteers will conduct several raffles, a 50-50 for cash and the others for gifts. Tickets for the 50-50 will be $1, six for $5 or 25 for $20. Tickets for the gift raffles will be $2, three for $5, seven for $10 or fifteen for $20. Gifts will include restaurant dinners, wine and jewelry, all donated by local merchants.

The Center’s corps of volunteers made the invitations, in addition to the hand-made table arrangements and decorations at the event, all of which will be on sale at the event.

Kathie Williams, the Center’s executive director, said the organization hopes to raise $20,000 from the gala. “Aside from our store on South Broad Street in town, The Children’s Center Emporium, the annual holiday event is our main fundraiser and we depend on it to support our programs,” she said.

Those programs run from offering a safe place for visitations between foster children and their families to professional counseling and emergency help with food and clothing. There’s even a program for high school students called “Baby Think it Over” in which life-like baby dolls with computerized actions are lent out to show teens what caring for a baby involves.

The Center has two full-time staff members at its headquarters at 95 South Johnson St. and serves some 1,000 children each year. Its current operating budget is $165,000.

Twenty-four unpaid volunteers handle many tasks and there are always opportunities for others to join them to help at The Emporium or at the main office. Inquiries about volunteering should be directed to the Center’s program director, Hollis Andersen, at 885 7286.