Approximately 120 people will waltz tonight away in Alumni Hall at the Friends of the Hopkins Center and Hood Museum of Art's third annual Symphony Ball, held to benefit art programs for local schoolchildren and College students.
The center's supporters plan to use proceeds from the $50-a-plate dinner to help meet their goal of raising $12,000 this year, said Beverly Wakely, head of the group's benefits committee.
Wakely said she expected the "Winter Wonderland" ball to raise $6,000. Last year's ball raised nearly $2,000.
Twelve members of the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra will lead the waltzing and the Barbary Coast jazz ensemble will also perform, she said. A few members of the Dartmouth Aires may also sing at the ball.
The purpose of Friends, a non-profit, volunteer organization is "to promote the welfare of the performing and visual arts," said Mita Wilking, head of the 25 member board of directors.
The money donated will fund four $1,000 grants to College arts students and the remaining $8,000 will provide arts-related programming for elementary and middle school children within a one-mile radius of Hanover, Wakely said.
The Friends meet once a month to plan fundraising activities and decide how to allocate their funds. Most of the 1300 members are retired or elderly people, Wilking said. Members are not artists, she added, but just "community-oriented people."
"The Friends want to provide students with the opportunity to further their education in the arts, through programs and events like those at the Hop and the Hood," Wilking said.
