Dinner, dancing and donations make annual gala memorable
Christmas Ball held to benefit Monmouth University library
By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer

CHRIS KELLY Guests dance and mingle amid beautifully decorated trees at the Christmas Ball and Celebration of Trees held Saturday in Woodrow Wilson Hall at Monmouth University. The gala was a fund-raiser for the Monmouth University Library Association, which gave the university $20,000 for its Murry and Leonie Guggenheim Memorial Library.

WEST LONG BRANCH — Awash in gorgeously decorated Christmas trees and garlands of greenery, Woodrow Wilson Hall at Monmouth University provided an elegant backdrop for the black-tie Christmas Ball and Celebration of Trees of the Monmouth University Library Association.

The 340 guests at the $175 per person affair Saturday night hobnobbed amid tables brimming with beautiful offerings for the silent auction in the richly paneled Pompeii Room during the cocktail hour, and dined on smoked salmon mousse and tenderloin of beef in the airy Great Hall. They then danced the night away to the strains of the Encore orchestra.

The highlight of the evening, and the purpose for the ball, was the presentation of a check for $20,000 to library dean Dr. Terence Webb for Monmouth University’s Murry and Leonie Guggenheim Memorial Library.

The presentation was made by Joan Brearley, president of the Monmouth University Library Association and chairwoman of the Christmas Ball.

Rebecca Stafford, president of Monmouth University, said the school was delighted to receive the money and that it would be put toward the planned new addition to the library. She said the college expects to break ground for it in the spring.

"The library association has been very generous to us," she said before the dinner. "They have contributed money in the past, and I’m sure will contribute more in the future."

The three co-chairs of the ball — Gloria Brucker of West Long Branch, Judy Rothenberg of Rumson and Connie Vames of Holmdel — welcomed the guests as they arrived, resplendent in their tuxes and evening gowns.

Guests were also greeted by no fewer than 10 Christmas trees in the Great Hall all decorated by Susan Musica, a professional tree trimmer who volunteered her services for the gala.

"She has done every single tree," Rothenberg said. "We may have been elves and handed her something, but she does the whole thing. … She brings all these trimmings and charges us nothing. She is amazing."

The star of the show was a tree decorated like a flag that was standing on the grand stairway leading up from the Great Hall. It had a blue top with red and white streamers flowing down and wrapping around the tree. The stairs were framed in red poinsettias.

On the opposite side of the dining area from the star attraction was another tree decorated in red, white and blue to resemble a flag, with blue Christmas balls at the top, red in the middle and white at the bottom.

Each of the circular tables in between had long white tablecloths topped with shorter red tablecloths and surrounded by 10 white chairs.

Every table had a centerpiece, credited to Verizon, made of a tall candelabra with greenery and pine cones interspersed at the base and accented by red Christmas balls.

The chandeliers overhead were draped in green garlands with red ornaments, while fireplaces at either end of the room were topped with lighted reindeer figures.

Other Christmas trees around the room included one decorated in blue and silver, and one in red and white with Santa’s sleigh and reindeer in white resting in its boughs. Yet another tree featured a large red cardinal with the softest of feathers and several smaller cardinals.

"This past week we worked every day, Monday through Friday," Brucker said about preparing the scene.

"This is always the highlight of the holiday," said Stafford, who was dressed in Christmas red. "Wilson Hall always looks so beautiful."

"It is the most beautiful evening in the whole world," Rothenberg asserted. "It brings tears to my eyes."

Vames said all the hard work leading up to the evening was worth it.

David Martocci, co-owner and general manager of Kessler’s Catering, the Elberon section of Long Branch, which provided the dinner (and has done so for 15 years), said the Monmouth University Christmas Ball is one of the prettiest parties of the year. And he said he sees a lot of parties.

"It’s because of the building and the decorations," he said.

Wilson Hall, which has graceful balconies stemming down from two upper floors looking down through an atrium to the Great Hall, was built in 1929 by the F.W. Woolworth Co. president, Hubert Templeton Parson, and his wife, Maysie.

The building was named after President Wilson, a New Jerseyan.

"It’s always a beautiful night," said Democratic West Long Branch Councilman Joseph DeLisa, who said he’s been attending the gala for several years now.

Newly re-elected Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina, R-Monmouth, who was using crutches while nursing a toe problem, mused about the new legislative session coming up in January, with Democrats taking control of the lower chamber.

He predicted that incoming Gov. Jim McGreevey and his Democratic cohorts were going to have a tough problem with the budget.

"There’s not going to be any money with the economy down," he said. But, he protested, "it wasn’t our (the Republicans) fault."

Monmouth County Sheriff Joseph W. Oxley, who was just re-elected to a new term, said the county jail was getting an infusion of new income by taking some Immigration and Naturalization Service prisoners.

The first 25 were arriving this week, he said. He said that number would grow to up to 100, with most charged with violations of their visa status.

The federal government will pay $80 a day per prisoner, he added.

Oxley was accompanied by his fiancée, Jackie Bartley. They said they haven’t set a date yet for their wedding, but expect to do so soon.

Both Oxley and Bartley are from Middletown.

Brearley, the university library association president, was happy that she was getting all of this year’s event on videotape for the first time.

Brearley, a member since 1994 of the Monmouth University Library Board, smiled as she watched the videocameraman at work.

"I said, ‘Doggone it, I’ve always wanted to have a memory,’ " she recalled, "and this year, tonight, we’re going to videotape the whole thing."