Levi cancels this year’s Baron’s Ball
Levi Hospital announced Wednesday that its annual benefit gala, the Baron’s Ball, scheduled for Nov. 7 in the Hot Springs Convention Center will be canceled for the first time in 28 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual fundraiser, which brought in more than $95,000 in total gross revenue last year, provides funding for Levi’s Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, Outpatient Transitions Counseling and Outpatient Physical Therapy and Physical Rehabilitation Program, Jackie Arrison, Levi’s vice president for development, said.
Arrison noted the cancellation of the event will not reduce any funding for the programs.
“So there’s not going to be any loss of service or any loss of care for the patients that we serve,” she said.
While the ball is canceled, there will still be a small fundraiser in its place — a “virtual” 29th annual Baron’s Ball of sorts.
According to news a release, the committee for the Baron’s Ball has come up with other ways to engage supporters of the hospital and the annual event.
“The plan is to mail out a ‘treasure box’ packed full of fun to loyal supporters and sponsors,” the release said. “Items will include but are not limited to a DVD of the Baron’s Ball’s greatest hits, festive masks, other masks
that can be worn in public to protect you and those around you, chocolate treats, and a save the date card for 2021.”
Although the boxes will be a creative sentiment to make up for the loss of the popular event, Arrison said the most important thing to the hospital right now is not the amount of money they would have to spend to send out these boxes, or the amount of revenue they won’t be making from the ball.
“(We’re) more concerned of the health and well-being of the people who love and support us on a regular basis; because the long-term relationship with them is far more important to us than what we could gain short term from having the event this year,” she said.
Arrison said canceling the ball was not an easy decision to make.
“Since we made the decision — because I honestly feel like we’ve been talking about this since March when the pandemic first became a reality — there were some preliminary discussions at that particular point in time, and then as we continued to kind of watch and wait and tried not to make a quick decision, it just became more and more apparent that the best thing to do would be to not have the gala the way it’s usually held,” she said.
“It definitely was a tough decision,” Arrison continued, “and we find ourselves in very unusual times and very unprecedented, which I know that term has been used a lot since the middle of March, but I do truly believe that we will all get through this and that there are better days ahead and that 2021 will be a Baron’s Ball to remember when we all get a chance to come back together again.”
The 30th annual Baron’s Ball is scheduled to be held Nov. 6, 2021.