Helping Hand Home presents 80th annual Crystal Ball

Two thousand guests gathered at the Palmer Events Center on Saturday, March 4, for one of the largest celebrations of the year, the Helping Hand Society of Austin’s 80th annual Crystal Ball.

Chaired by Lindsey Sartain and Christy Werner, the event featured a full day of festivities, beginning with a delicious champagne brunch that featured a video of Helping Hand forever families and the home’s foster-to-adopt program. Also at the brunch the First Grade Princesses were presented, and ninth grade Helping Hand Girls were introduced as were the Debutantes.

Elegantly dressed guests reunited Saturday evening with old friends for the Crystal Ball’s hallmark black-tie Debutante Presentation Gala and the presentation of ninth grade Helping Hand Home Boys and Girls. With floral decorations by Westbank Flower Market and debutants dressed in classic white formal dresses, the Palmer Events Center looked like something straight from a fairy tale.

After cocktail hour and dinner, debutants and their escorts were presented one by one. Following the presentation, guests of all ages danced the night away.

Funds from the evening benefit Helping Hand Home for Children, an organization that has provided a nurturing home for children since 1893.

Helping Hand Home has provided a safe haven for children healing from physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect, or abandonment by delivering a continuum of services including therapeutic residential treatment, on-site charter school, foster care program, and adoption and family support programs. Thanks to private and community support, Helping Hand Home is able to fulfill its mission of healing the most vulnerable children and restoring them to healthy families. The Home’s East campus expansion, which will increase capacity by 41%, will be completed later this year.