By Wicker Van Orsdel
Spring…is that you? Yes it’s sprung…and on April Fool’s Day, spring sprung in many fashions. The first (of many, I’m sure) Bubble Ball was held at the Embassy Club West. It was a gala event inspired by bubble wrap to benefit ChildServe, an organization that helps children with special health care needs live better lives. It was completely sold out.
The invitation suggested bubble wrap attire would be welcomed. I fashioned a last-minute frilly glue-gunned bubble wrap frock a couple of hours before the party, using the required bubble wrap and embellished with pom-poms and strategically placed flowers…(it is see-through). I was primed to UPS myself to the party. I arrived just in time to be seated for the dinner. As I entered the room, I was amazed to see that everyone was wearing cocktail attire….and NOT bubble wrap as suggested in the invitation. Hmm. April fools was on me…I felt like the frog at the Prom. I just took my seat and snap-crackled-popped my way through dinner. The menu was for the most part…round. (You know what they say: “If you can’t be nice…be vague.”)
The creative geniuses behind all this fun were co–chairs Soozie McBroom and Jim Willer (although I suspect Jim just did whatever Soozie told him to do). We knew the evening would be novel when Soozie and Jim appeared on stage in “Cat-in-the-Hat” outfits, fabricated out of bubble wrap, to start their shenanigans. They gave a nonsensical “Suessical” reading of what the evenings promised to be…fun and bubblicious!
A fashion runway coursed the Embassy Club West, and we enjoyed the bubbly creations of designers from all over Des Moines. They created imaginative and stylish spring fashions made entirely out of bubble wrap. Many of Des Moines’ finest strutted down the runway sporting these cleverly concocted bubbly outfits….culminating with a Chinese New Year’s Dragon out of bubble wrap, courtesy of Sticks!
It was one of the most novel and sensational events that I have had the pleasure of popping into in a long time. Kudos to the committee and ChildServe staff….it was a total bubblicious success, and as Dr. Suess says, “If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.”
