The Shepherdstown Rotary Club’s annual Christmas Charity Ball, which was held December 5 at the Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department Hall, netted a total of $25,300 for 18 local nonprofit organizations.

This year’s event was entitled “Our Ball, Your Charity,” and it was organized in a new way. Individual Rotarians helped underwrite the Ball by sponsoring tables and contributing funds to cover all of the Ball’s food costs. The proceeds from the sale of tickets to each table were then donated to a charity selected by that table’s host. There was no fixed price for tickets; instead, attendees were asked to make appropriate contributions.

Each table was also given the opportunity to participate in a silent and live auction, and all the auction proceeds went to the designated charities as well.

“The idea,” said Club President Tom Trumble, “was to allow a large number of relatively small charities benefit from a community-wide fund-raising event that they might not have been able to organize on their own.”

“And we’re very glad it was so successful. This is practical demonstration of Rotary’s commitment to the concept of ‘Service above Self.'”

Four event sponsors paid for the event’s beverages, music and decorations: Charles Town Races and Slots, Jefferson Security Bank, Dr. and Mrs. David Miljour, and Shepherd University.

Members of Shepherd University’s Rotaract Club served as hosts by welcoming guests, guiding then to their seats and checking coats.

The nonprofit organizations that benefited from the event were as follows: AHA Heritage Project; Animal Welfare Society; The Arts Centre; Avon Walk for Breast Cancer; CASA of the Eastern Panhandle; Contemporary American Theater Festival, the Ellsworth Family Fund; Friends in Action; Friends of Happy Retreat; Friends of Music; the Historic Shepherdstown Commission; Potomac Valley Audubon Society; Shepherd University Community Service Learning; Shepherdstown Daycare Center; Shepherdstown Public Library; Shepherdstown Rotary Foundation; Tour de Revs (a 100-day bicycle ride, led by local Lutheran pastor Fred Soltow, that will benefit the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s World Hunger Program); and the Two Rivers Giving Circle.