Our Big Fundraising Night "On The Town"!

What a night it was Readers! I so wish ALL of you could have been there to dance and cha cha the night away with us! We raised  $732.34  towards our bathroom renovations, (with donations still trickling in!) That's nearly half of what we need to raise to put the bathroom holding tank in!!! Hooray!  (We need a total $2700.00 to complete the job, so we are well on our way!)
 Now settle in readers because we filmed all the evenings fun and entertainment to share with you!

Nearly 70 of our friends turned out to raise funds for the Casablanca and we had a WONDERFUL time doing it! Everyone was dressed so sharp in their formals...

(Friends Kara, Emily and Lauren)

(Friend Rachel and son Caleb)

(Friends Chloe, Mary, Myself, Sheldon, and Zack)

(Friends Stephanie and Catilyn)

(Our Masters of Ceremonies Jensen & Seigen!)

I am starting to learn we just need a photographer for these events! I was so busy running in circles I hardly got to take any pictures, but rest assured everyone looked so nice.  

We had quite an evening of entertainment and dancing planed, and at 7:45P.M. Our fantastic Masters of Ceremonies started things off...

("The Road to Morocco" By Seigen and Jensen)

Wasn't that funny?! These guys are a hoot, and our favorite "go to" M.C.'S! 

After the first number  we danced the Hokey Pokey to get things rolling.

The "Hokey Pokey", "Limbo" and "Bunny Hop" have become tradition at Casablanca dances, everyone's has fun doing them. Although, "The Bunny Hop" becomes a test of endurance as the song plays on! 

At 8:05P.M. Friend Lara shared a song with us about how surprisingly "Shy" she is.

 ("I'm Shy" -from- Once Upon A Mattress" by Friend Lara)

 At 8:20 P.M. Friend Jennifer serenaded us with her ukelele!

("Boom" by Friend Jennifer)

Then it was back to the dancing, this time with "The Stroll"...

Strolling on!

At 8:35 P.M. we were crooned to by friend Michael!

("My Funny Valentine" by Friend Michael.)

Isn't his voice JUST like velvet! He had all  the girls swooning!

("It Had To Be You" - By Friend Michael.)

At 8:50P.M. we were in for a real treat! Friend Stephanie and Caitlyn had prepared a tap dance number!

("Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better"- By Friends Stephanie and Caitlyn!)

It BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN! And Rightfully so, those girls worked so hard on that tap number JUST  for this event! 

At 9:05 Friend Terrace took the stage with an old Peggy Lee favorite!

("Why Cant You Do Right" - Peggy Lee- by Friend Terrace.)

Then at 9:20 P.M. it was time for the long awaited Limbo Contest!

(Our Limbo Contest Winners- Jarrod and Lee!)

(Myself and Local Channel 3 NBC News anchor celebrity Katie Crosbie!)

 Almost  everyone we knew turned out for the dance, and people kept coming!

A good time was being had by all, Miss Casablanca 1959 was ladling out punch for party goers, and Friend Jordan (head of the refreshments committee) made sure we were well stocked with cookies!

Our famous fruit punch, in my Great Grandmother Youngblood's punch bowl-

 (Delicious!)

At 9:40 Friends Audrey (Miss Casablanca 1959) and Jensen took to the floor to sing and dance with an old Cole Porter tune!

("De-Lovley"-Cole Porter- By Audrey & Jensen)

There Song and dance was, well... De-lightful, de-lishiouis, De-Lovley~! Jensen and Auredy will be starring in a Production of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" later this summer, what a great preview!

At 9:55 We were lucky enough to be entertained by the Sisters Andrews!

("Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" -The Andrews Sisters - By Friends Jennifer V., Mary F. And Patricia!)

 At 10:10 P.M. We were visited by our first special guests of the evening!

("Honey Bun"- Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific- By Friends Mary W., Utah, and Sheldon.)

Guest danced in the low light, drank and ate, and at 10:25 Friend Jarrod brought out his gitaur to serenade all the couples at the dance.

The records were kept spinning by Friend Utah, our zany DJ for the evening! First "The Bunny Hop"

Then a rowdy "Mexican Hat Dance" by Chubby Checker!

(Friend Utah cutting it up!)

At 10:45 Out of nowhere our second special guest appeared!

("Feeling Good" - Frank Sinatra- By Friend Chance!)

We danced, and Danced, and DANCED Some more!  "Real" dancing mind you, none fo this bump and grind stuff. It was all such great fun we could have very well danced all night! But all great parties must eventually come to a close, so for the last song of the Dance Miss Casablanca took the stage and sang the "Casablanca" Movie theme song "As Time Goes By"...

A fitting end to a wonderful evening. 


Oh, oh OH! let me tell you about our theme and decorations! (I nearly forgot) Since this is the only Casablanca party ever to be held somewhere OTHER than the Casablanca we had to channel the 1940's War time vibe to set the mood! 

We held the dance in the upstairs banquet hall of  the historic Wichita Theatre in down town Wichita falls. The Decoration committee (Patricia, Jennifer V., Jordan and Myself) set things up to be like a 1940's dance club!

 Complete with performance stage...

 (Patriotic red, white, and blue lanterns!)

I was going for a homemade/USO show back ground all of our props, costumes and all the featured decorations came from shows we've done in the past at the Theatre. Jennifer and Patricia wired all the stair and balcony rail work with white Christmas lights. I was very happy with the way things came together, it was just being Mickey Rooney in an "Andy Hardy" Movie! Every thing just kind of fell into place. In Typical Mick Jordan fashion, I festooned anything that would stand still in crepe paper streamers and paper lanterns!

We surrounded our Stage/ dance floor with ringisde tables for two (just like in the movies!) we found these wonderful black and white chairs upstairs left over from a production of "My Fair Lady", and friend Cheryl lent us the silky purple table cloths left over from her daughters wedding! Thanks Cheryl! And The paper lanterns are from a production of "Annie Get Your Gun"! One of the neatest things about having our event down at the Theatre was getting to put our event up on the old marquee!

It looked so cool at night with all the neon lit up and letter board blazing!

(I love the red and green blinking neon!)

 (Patricia and I all dressed up.)

Patricia and I have such wonderful and supportive friends, there are so many people to thank for helping put on this event, Friends Lynn Marshall and Russ for coming up with it, (Lynn also for being our publicity committee and coming up with all kinds of great art and posters. Our planning committee Utah, Jennifer, Patricia, Jordan, Nichole, Zack. All of our wonderful friends that volunteered to be part of the entertainment for the evening (You all were Wonderful thank you so much for donating your time and hard work for a fabulous floor show!) All the Blog readers who have sent donations our way, Dwane and Lisa Jackson of Wichita Theatre for hosting a place to have the event, and everyone else who helped in some way. Also to all of the fabulous party guests and and nice people who donated to the cause. THANK YOU ALL! 

There is a line from "Wizard of Oz" that always touches home with me and I think is appropriate for the situation "A heart is not judged by how much YOU love, but by how much you are loved by OTHERS." I feel the love and consider myself to be so incredibly blessed. If this were a movie, I feel it would be like the end of "It's A Wonderful Life."

Thank you all so much.

Here's looking at you kids! 

-Mick-