Scholarship Ball Headed Benedictine College’s 38th Annual Scholarship Ball is scheduled for a change of venue this year, heading to the Century Ballroom at the Westin Crown Center Hotel in downtown Kansas City. The move to the high-profile location should help to further bolster the reputation of the Ball, which is now regularly one of the top 10 fundraisers in the area. This year’s co-chairs, Dennis and Carolyn Connor, ’76, Watley and Lawrence, ’63, and Linda Kaminsky, have set the date for Saturday, February 21, 2009. This year’s event will honor Dan and Mary Carol Garrity and Matt, ’81, and Ann Anthony with the prestigious Cross of the Order of St. Benedict.
Dan & Mary Carol Garrity submitted photo
Mary Carol is best known for her successful home decorating stores, Nell Hill’s, located in Atchison and Kansas City, and Garrity’s Encore, also in Atchison. Her entrepreneurial spirit and wonderful sense of style have made the retail store legendary in the home decorating world. Success has brought her national attention from Forbes magazine, CBS’s The Early Show, NBC’s Today show, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Midwest Living, Country Living, Victoria, and many other media outlets.
Dan, a successful lawyer and former mayor of Atchison. The two have worked hard to encourage the economic growth and well-being of their hometown. Nell Hill’s DORQH EULQJV PRUH WKDQ SHRSOH WR $WFKLVRQ HYHU\ \HDU PRVW IURP RYHU PLOHV DZD\ 'DQ KDV VHUYHG on the Benedictine College Board of Directors and has served as an adjunct professor at the college. Mary Carol has been involved in everything from hosting college events to treating female BC students to a special entrepreneurship dinner. She also provides BC students with marketing internship opportunities at Nell Hill’s. 7KH FRXSOH KDV RQH GDXJKWHU .HOO\ D JUDGXDWH RI the Washburn University School of Law.
In addition to the stores, she also has her own series of books, a column syndicated weekly throughout the U.S., D OLQH RI KRPH DFFHQWV FDUULHG E\ VWRUHV DQG FXVWRP paint colors. Helping her in the business is her husband,