BY RYAN O’CONNOR
Beads, balloons, feathered boas and Dixieland music set the mardi gras mood to help get 28 volunteers to Biloxi, Miss., to aid the Hurricane Katrina relief.
The Feb. 17 Mardi Gras and silent auction celebration at Harold Martin School in Hopkinton served more than 225 people and raised about $7,000.
“It’s been the most amazing thing I’ve ever put together because the community has come together in ways you couldn’t even imagine,” said organizer Kathy Ashton of First Congregational Church of Hopkinton. “We thought, ‘If we get 50 items for the silent auction we’ll be lucky,’ and we received 251 items, and they are all great items.”
Some auction items included cookbooks, event tickets, gift baskets, gift certificates, vacation packages, furniture, clothing, jewelry and others.
The Tall Granite Jazz Band, with local musicians Whit Simms, Dave Dustin, Dave Cook, Tim Wildman, Kurt Ekstrom and Randy Hencke, was formed specifially to entertain gatherers at the event.
The event also featured a mask-making workshop for children and authentic Cajun cuisine such as jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice, and hot dogs for children.
The celebration also included “king cakes” – large crown-shaped pastries cut into slices.
Liz Olson, who contributed to the event, said the cakes are indicative of Three Kings Day, which kicks off Mardi Gras and symbolizes the three wise men traveling to find baby Jesus.
“On Three Kings Day in New Orleans, everybody brings in the first king cakes to school, to work, everywhere, and each cake has a little plastic baby to symbolize Jesus,” said Olson. “When you eat it, if you get the baby, you have to bring in the cake the next day. So, it goes on from Three Kings Day, which is Jan. 12, every day leading up to Mardi Gras.”
Ashton said she thought of the idea to make the trip to Biloxi and host the fundraiser after her daughter, who was serving with Americorps, informed her of the level of destruction that still exists along the Gulf.
The 28 volunteers, including Ashton, will volunteer from April 29 to May 5 in Biloxi with the Back Bay Mission to help restore homes demolished during Hurricane Katrina.
The homes belong to low- income families, most without insurance.