Submitted photo The Holiday Ball's Christmas tree, which was festooned with donated hats, scarves and gloves.

The Shepherdstown Rotary Club’s Annual Holiday Charity Ball, which was held Dec. 2 at the Shepherdstown Volunteer Fire Department Hall, raised a total of $23,908 for charitable causes.

This year’s Charity Ball was organized somewhat differently than those of recent past years. In addition to raising funds for charitable organizations, a big push was made for donations of newly purchased winter clothing items for children in Richwood, West Virginia. Richwood, in Nicholas County, was among the communities hit hardest by last June’s floods and the Shepherdstown community has been focusing its flood relief efforts there.

In the end, $8,500 worth of coats, hats, scarves and gloves were collected through the Charity Ball, and all these items have since been transported to Richwood by club members who volunteered their time to make the 9-hour round-trip drive.

In addition, the Ball raised a total of $11,073 for 11 different local charitable organizations and another $4,445 for Club-sponsored international projects in Haiti and Africa.

The local charitable organizations that benefitted from the event were as follows: The Bodice Project, CASA of the Eastern Panhandle, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Friends of Music, Historic Shepherdstown Commission, Jefferson High School Interact Club, Shepherd University, Shepherd University RAM Partners, Shepherdstown Area Independent Living and the Shenandoah Women’s Center.

The Shepherdstown Rotary Club’s Annual Holiday Charity Ball has raised a total of $214,239 for charitable causes over the past nine years.