Dinner/Dance set for Feb. 8 in Marysville
By Barb Pert Templeton
There’s nothing quite like “boogying the night away” on a cold winter evening and the ARC of St. Clair County hopes to provide that opportunity to everyone with their 2nd annual “Show the Love” dinner dance.
ARC Executive Director Valerie Hudgens said the success of last year’s event, that included 200 people and brought $20,000 in donations for the non-profit, has organizers excited to host this year’s dinner dance. In fact, they hope to see 300 tickets sold and have set a new fundraising goal at $25,000.
Last year’s debut “Show the Love” event had the banquet center decked out in red and white and included 200 people.
The event is set for Thursday, Feb. 8 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at Alexanders Banquet Center, in Marysville. Sponsored by the ARC of St. Clair County, tickets are $40 each and include a full dinner menu and plenty of sweet desserts. There will also be a silent auction and cash bar.
The dinner menu, provided by Alexander’s Banquet Center, will include both chicken and beef entrees, pasta marinara, pasta alfredo, salad and soup and an array of desserts. Local merchants who have donated the desserts including Café Nola in Kimball Township, Piece of Cake Bakery in Fort Gratiot, Amalfi Baked in Marysville and Hippy Dippy Creamery also in Marysville.
“The community has really supported us for this event and our consumers (at the ARC) are very excited about it; it’s dinner, dancing and partying,” Hudgens said.
An evening of dancing was part of the fun at last year’s event.
Entertainment will be provided by local singer, song writer Julianne Ankley, whose talents include the music genres of country, pop, rock and blues tunes. An award-winning artist who picked up ‘Best Country Music Artist in Detroit’ in 2011, Ankley’s from Port Huron and has a total of 15 Detroit Music Awards.
The dinner-dance will also have a DJ spinning tunes for the dance crowd a bit later in the evening.
Beyond dinner and dancing there will also be a silent auction although this year the bidding is limited to in-person bids, there won’t be an online auction this time out. Hudgens said the auction items, which include everything from a margarita basket with a hammock to movie, popcorn and booze baskets plus an ice cream machine and some crafts, should be fun for guests. To bid they simply fill out a slip that’s with the item they hope to win and wait for the callout to winners later in the evening.
The silent auction in 2023 was popular with the crowd.
There will also be lots of gift certificates offered via the auction and in fact organizers are still accepting donations for those interested in helping out.
Hudgens said the ARC provides services to clients across St. Clair County supporting and protecting the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She said serving as advocate for adults can include everything from arranging transportation, finding employment opportunities, setting up Medicare of Medicaid and other tasks that help promote inclusively and independence for their clients.
The ARC hosts two other annual events, a Mother’s Day flower sale in May and a golf outing in June.
To find out more about the upcoming “Show the Love” event visit The Arc of St. Clair County on Facebook or at the website thearcscc.org. To donate items for the silent auction contact Hudgens at (810)989-9144.
