THE DEUX-SÈVRES MONTHLY
VIVA LAS VEGAS!
by Helen Aurelius-Haddock
When I decided to organise a charity cabaret evening, I had forgotten what a huge amount of work it can be. Back in August I persuaded my good friend Nigel Skinner to come along and perform at a charity cabaret in aid of the French and UK Hemochromatosis Societies. He was very willing, and I thought to myself "Great -‐ job done!". How wrong I was! In my past life in the UK, I had worked alongside a team of willing parents raising funds for our daughters' school, and quickly learned that as a one-‐man band, this was going to be a much harder job to get organised than I originally thought. My first huge blunder was I had managed to book an evening that coincided with the Reaction Theatre's performance, plus not one, but two local quiz team events! If that wasn't bad enough, there were a myriad of reasons why most people I knew could not come along. It started to look a bit grim. There was a point along the way where I thought I may have needed to cancel, but then my brother -‐in law stepped in and saved the day. He is our family "Imagineer" and from that point, took the helm and steered me in the right direction. We advertised the event through my network of local contacts, who in turn handed out leaflets and posters in their respective activity circles -‐ line dancing, gardening club, book club, and so on. It was a real revelation to see how organised the Deux-‐Sèvres ex-‐ pat community is! Sarah Berry was a darling and put in a fabulous ad into The DSM which we used as a template for the tickets and posters, which helped raise awareness in the area as well. Our Maire organised a leaflet drop for the entire village too. Anyway, back to my brother in law......... He is not a man to think on modest scales, whatever the budget. He was soon ordering smoke machines, red carpet, and enough ice to encase a mammoth. My worries grew as I spent more and more, praying that I wasn't going to make a loss on the event. He then suggested I ask the "LIFT" ladies to lend us some of his more bizarre requests, and as ever, Zena Sabestini came up trumps, first with a pair of patio gas burners (don't ask!) and then a decent sized ice machine. I began to think that we may just pull it off. The 24th November came around soon enough and a very small team of us gathered at the Salle de Fetes and we spent the entire
day giving it the "Las Vegas" treatment. The effect was stunning -‐ we had a proper stage with backdrop and lighting, a colour themed seating area, balloons in their hundreds and a bar festooned with ice buckets crammed with beer, sparkling wine and the like, which were eagerly to be taken to tables by our bistro-‐style waiters, headed up by my daughter and nephew. All we needed now were our audience, and we were not to be disappointed. Everyone turned up, and we had a large number of walk-‐ins too. The music started, the bar opened at it was game on. Nigel was joined by local artists, Three Plus One, and soon everyone was dancing to the excellent music on offer. Our intermission saw the serving up of around 150 home made British style pies, made by my Mum and sister, which were devoured with enthusiasm. There was also a raffle of exciting prizes ranging from a case of vintage wine to a set of acrylic nails. Nigel's sets really added that final soupcon of Las Vegas magic to the evening and gave us his best performance to date amid the swirl of the smoke machine and the disco-‐ style lights. The evening came and went all too quickly and was an enormous hit. At the time of writing we have raised 1200 euros, but donations are still coming in. It would be impossible to thank all those who gave their time, donations and money to make this first event such a success, but you know who you are, and I am so very grateful to you all. If you would like to learn more about hereditary haemochromatosis, or would like to give a donation to this event, please follow these links: www.everyclick.com/vivalasvegas , www.hemochromatose.fr and www.haemochromatosis.org.uk
Photos:Below: The salle decorated Las Vegas style. Above right: Guests enjoying the live music Above Left: Nigel getting started.
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