In the past two decades, an annual LGBT event has succeeded in raising more than $2 million for LGBT causes in the area. This year, to honor its 20th anniversary, Blue Ball is offering new parties, new venues and a renewed commitment to fundraising.
Blue Ball events will run from Jan. 26-30 at various locations throughout the city. The concept was developed in 1991 as a community fundraising effort and, starting in 2002, was spearheaded by LGBT grantmaking agency Sapphire Fund.
Community leaders such as Heshie Zinman, Kevin McNealy and Jim Hamilton were among the original crafters of Blue Ball, and Sapphire Fund president Domenic Gallelli, who’s been involved with the event for the past 15 years, said it has grown steadily since its inception.
“It started just as a smaller fundraising effort by people who wanted to give back and help the community,” Gallelli said. “I don’t think they thought back then that this really had the legs under it to continue for this long, but here we are 20 years later.”
Blue Ball was held in October the past few years, but Gallelli said organizers decided to move the 2010 event to this month, as the initial event was held in January 20 years ago.
Sapphire Fund hopes this Blue Ball will raise up to $45,000, which will go to support the agency’s 2011 beneficiaries: The Attic Youth Center, Mazzoni Center and the William Way LGBT Community Center.
Gallelli has provided security for many of the Blue Ball parties in the past, but this year stepped up to become the Blue Ball event chair. Although planning has been stressful, he said the support the community has exhibited has been inspiring.
“It’s been quite an experience,” he said of the planning process. “It’s been exhausting, but amazing. I can’t stress enough that there’s been so much more involvement from the community than in past years. It’s amazing how much time and effort people are putting into something to help others. So even though the planning and the logistics have been time-consuming and unnerving, it made me see just how much people care about this and how much they’re willing to do for their community.”
Organizers this year are especially committed to making Blue Ball open and accessible to all diverse segments of the LGBT community.
“Our theme is ‘One Weekend, One Community,’ and I think we need to get back to that this year,” Gallelli said. “There are so many different stakeholders in this community, and we felt like we needed to reach all of those different segments. That’s been our constant theme in varying forms throughout the years — just the basic elemental celebration of all members of the community. I’m very proud to say that this year’s events cover the entire broad cross-section of the community.”
The five-day event kicks off with Junior Blue Jan. 26 at Woody’s, a party for those 18 and over that, Gallelli noted, corresponds well with the agency’s recent youth outreach, including the launch of a new undergrad scholarship program, the appointment of a youth advisor to the board and the selection of The Attic as a beneficiary.
The following night, Blue Ball will partner with LGBT social Our Night Out at Q Lounge for the monthly networking event, followed by the Blue Ball kickoff party at the same venue.
Woody’s will host Blue Ball’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”-themed party Jan. 28, and the organizers of the women’s Stimulus parties will stage the Ladies’ Winter Wonderland Ball at the TLA that night.
The main Blue Ball party will be held Jan. 29 at Trust, Third and Arch streets, and Gallelli said the venue has been wholly welcoming throughout the organizing process.
“They’ve been amazingly accommodating and are doing so much in terms of helping out with lighting and staging costs because they really just want to do more and more,” he said. “I’m still just so overwhelmed by how so many people are coming together to make this a success.”
Once the party’s over, supporters can come together the next day for the Sapphire Fund brunch at The Pyramid Club, followed by Sunday Tea at Woody’s.
Gallelli said he’s hopeful local community members will mobilize their friends from throughout the region to devote their weekend partying for good causes, spearheaded by Sapphire Fund and its fundraising recipients.
“A friend of mine who challenged me to take on a bigger role with this event said to me, ‘Being here is about more than just being here.’ People in this community really get that and believe in doing something beyond just being here as a community: I’ve seen so far just how many people want to give back to this community and do something together, and my goal is that other people see that as well and support these events and the extraordinary work these beneficiary organizations do. Sapphire Fund’s mission is to help organizations that help the community and, no matter how much money we raise, I have immeasurable gratitude for the community and the organizations that do so much work for that community every day.”
For more information on Blue Ball, visit www.blueballphilly.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].