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2007 06 29

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Converted from paper version of the Broad Ripple Gazette (v04n13)

Tammy's Take - By Tammy Leiber

posted: Jun. 29, 2007

Consider this a call to action-a fabulous party needs your help!

Few things bother me more than a good party in distress, but this goes far beyond my own love of socializing over red wine and cheese cubes.

The party in question is the fete held on the Friday of Meridian-Kessler Home Tour weekend. Traditionally, the Twilight Tour has featured special tour homes for that evening only, and dinner, drinks and dancing at a street party.

This year, it morphed into the Meridian-Kessler Twilight Masquerade and moved indoors and out of the neighborhood, to Highland Country Club. About 150 tickets were sold, compared with 200-300 in previous years.

Money raised at the party, most of it from a silent auction, makes up a huge chunk of the grants awarded annually by the Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood Association (MKNA). This spring, MKNA doled out $17,400 raised at last year's party and Home Tour to twenty-one appreciative organizations from inside and outside the neighborhood's boundaries.

That's a worthy cause, so, despite the change in locale, I happily drug out the fancy dress that usually adorns only the back of my closet and headed to the country club.

I'm not what you might call a country club kind of person, as evidenced by the fact that it took Queen Bee Nora and me a phone call and three tries to find the place. But, for a good cause (and a good party), it was worth it. My story was that, since it was a masquerade party, I was masquerading as someone elegant.

In short, the evening was lovely. The party was well-planned and well-organized, the silent auction raised some bucks, and the Impalas are maybe the best band ever for this sort of soiree.

The best part, though, wasn't the setting, the money raised, the food or the music, it was the people. Usually, my neighborhood socializing happens in bits and pieces-pleasantries exchanged after a meeting or while knee deep in tree planting or alley cleanups. At the Twilight Masquerade, however, the focus was on fun, no getting dirty required.

I chatted with Rick and Marcie Hubbard about coffee beans. I disclosed my fascination with power tools to someone I'd just met. I admired the costume of the man who showed up in an epaulet-bedecked uniform fit for Napoleon.

Who says helping the neighborhood has to be hard work? For a neighborhood as large and diverse as Meridian-Kessler, I realized, just bringing people together for fun has tremendous value in creating a sense of community.

Someone, of course, has to plan such fabulousness, and that's where my call to action comes in. After the party, I asked one of the organizers, Kelly Todd, what might happen to the party next year.

Nothing's been decided yet, but the organizers are sympathetic to the many residents who complained about the party being moved indoors and off the streets of Meridian-Kessler, Todd said.

The trouble is that the details of that kind of party are too much for the seven or so volunteers tasked with making all things Home Tour happen. Permits are harder to secure post-9/11 than they used to be, neighbors aren't always happy about having their street blocked off, tents and generators and tables have to be rented.

These people need help, so I implore everyone who's ever attended the Home Tour or Twilight party or who's benefited from one of the grants made possible by them to consider pitching in to keep the Twilight party going next year.

"The main thing we need is more people," Todd said. "There's a huge lack of volunteers."

I plan to try harder to do my part next year, but, as I am the sort of person who will invite people over for dinner in an hour and then realize the refrigerator contains only the makings for a spinach omelette, I plead with those who actually have talent at entertaining to keep the Twilight party going.

It's not too soon to start helping out for next year-shoot me an e-mail and I'll put you in touch with a group of great party people.

Tammy Lieber is a freelance writer who lives in Meridian Kessler, otherwise known as SoBro. A former reporter at the Indianapolis Business Journal, she now writes journalism and marketing pieces when she's not fixing up her house or enjoying the company of friends over a pint of Guinness. Her favorite spectator sport is politics, except on Sundays during football season. Email her at tammy@broadripplegazette.com

tammy@broadripplegazette.com

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