The gin was served in glasses instead of bathtubs, the drinks were legal and there were no machine-gun toting gangsters in attendance, but everything else at the Mercy Ball was strictly Roaring `20s.
Even Sister Dorothy Burns, the Aurora hospital`s president, got into last weekend`s theme, and quipped, ”You wouldn`t find this hat on me if there wasn`t (a theme).”
The $100-per-person event, the 25th such evening sponsored by Mercy Center Auxiliary, was held at the Drake Oakbrook and raised about $20,000.
”The funds are going to be used for a new natal unit,” explained Dr. Marvin Kolb. ”We`re looking at expanding our monitoring capabilities of moms, not just in their rooms, but in the central stations.”
The auxiliary has about 250 women from the Kane County area supporting the hospital. Their dresses Saturday night ranged from elegantly dignified to flapper daring; their husbands, many of whom are doctors at the hospital, came in black tie.
”If you`re going to have a heart attack,” cracked publicity chair Wendy Hirsch, ”this is the place to do it.”
Kane County dignitaries such as Aurora Mayor David Pierce and his wife, Susan, and state Sen. Forest Etheredge and his wife, Joan, were among the 322 attendees. The senator has been a member of Mercy Center`s board for 20 years. Aurora`s new police chief, David Stover, claimed that he was not on the lookout for gamblers or gangsters, but that his attendance with his wife, Karen, was strictly social.
Trudy Huberty, chair of the event, welcomed the group to dinner by following the advice her mother always gave her.
”Stand up straight so they can see you, speak up so they can hear you and keep it short so they like you,” Huberty said.
The centerpieces, designed by R.D. Interior Design in Oswego, showed off a glittery array of boas, masks, garters and sparkled sprigs sitting in a top hat. After dinner, the five-member Buffalo Shufflers led a sing-along to such tunes as ”If You Knew Susie,” ”Side by Side” and ”The Band Played On,”
which they did-until the stroke of midnight, when the flappers turned back into everyday auxiliary members, at least until next year`s event.
