Masquerade ball returns with goal of boosting community’s mental health

With the past two years being difficult for many people, organizers of the Moose Jaw Masquerade Ball hope the event’s return will boost spirits and the community’s mental health.

This will be the ball’s fifth anniversary, which launched in 2016 to support the Moose Jaw branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA).

This year’s event occurs at the Heritage Inn on Saturday, May 21, with doors opening at 5 p.m. and dinner at 6 p.m. There will be three guest speakers, table games, a silent auction, 50/50, and a performance by The Bromantics.

Since the ball has a 1950s theme, men should dress in their best cardigan sweaters and trousers while women should wear their best poodle skirts and saddle shoes. Or, you know, other fashions of the day.

Tickets are $50 each and can be purchased from www.mentalhealthball.com.

The Heritage Inn is also running a promotion to help reduce impaired driving. Ticket holders can provide a code number and stay the night for $99; breakfast is included.

The ball has been on hiatus for the past two years because of issues with quarantine, physical distancing, and wearing masks, explained event chairwoman Karma Klassen.

During that time, the CMHA’s Moose Jaw branch “has taken a helluva hit,” she continued. Its executive director, Nema Atsu, left the position around January 2021, staffing levels were cut from 10 people to two people, its budget was slashed to 20 per cent and it moved to a new location on High Street West.

Furthermore, there was a complete turnover on the ball’s board. This forced Klassen to rebuild the team for this year’s event; members have been working on the ball since October.

“But thankfully — oh my God — thankfully we’ve got such smart, skilled, wonderful, driven people working towards the cause, and I just love them,” she said.

Klassen reached out to new executive director David Coulombe about the ball, but he knew nothing about it because he was so new. However, he indicated that he was thrilled to learn about a fundraiser, especially after the challenges the office faced.

“And on the flip side, they’re dealing with so many more mental health crises out there,” she pointed out.

The ball’s board has taken a different approach to acquire support for the event, Klassen said. In past years, committee members went from business to business, attempting to drum up donations and items for the silent auction. However, this approach drained committee members since there were only four of them, while it was also an “archaic way” of finding support.

“Tickets were being sold in different locations physically, and keeping track of it all was monumental,” she remarked.

The re-formation of the committee — there are now eight members — has brought a new level of inspiration to organizing the event, with almost every process now digital, she continued. The committee initially thought of scanning vaccine passports at the doors but then realized they could also scan tickets simultaneously.

Everyone on the board is committed to ensuring that the CMHA Moose Jaw branch’s office gets back on its feet after a tough few years, Klassen said.

“We’ve seen an (increase) of mental health crises, but those lead to life decisions that can hurt a person, which can lead to homelessness, addiction and crime,” she noted. “And we’re looking to fight all of those to sort of help people come out of those areas that can swamp a person.

“We do it every year because it never goes away; mental health always needs help.”