BENEFIT GALA REAPS GOLDEN REWARDS ON TMA ANNIVERSARY
Tyler Morning Telegraph
By LINDSAY RANDALL, Staff Writer
Every room at Willow Brook Country Club shone brilliantly on Saturday night, from the dazzling jewels nestled in velvet-lined boxes to the sequin-laden gowns of guests at the Tyler Museum of Art’s 35th annual benefit gala and auction.
TMA committee members wore flashing red, blue and yellow rubber rings, women dangled strings of gems from their ears and necks, and the cut glass of chandeliers and wine glasses sparkled subtly … an apt ambience for a ball dubbed “All that Glitters.”
Kaye Ferrier said the gala committee came up with the theme within minutes.
“Someone said, ‘Jewelry!’ and someone said, ‘All that glitters!’ and that was it,” she laughed.
Jewelry constituted several high-dollar items at the evening’s auction. Dr. Noah Israel won a Charles Krypell pink morganite necklace, donated by Susan Robinson Jewelry, for $3,750, and Ramsey-Fritz Jewelers and American Gold & Diamond also donated pieces.
But for Tisa Hibbs, the real gem of the evening was glittering at the end of the treasure hunt. After searching the country club high and low with the aid of a “treasure map,” she was rewarded with a pair of diamond and pearl earrings from Ramsey-Fritz Jewelers.
“Tisa had to sweat a little to solve it, but she did,” said chairperson Marsha Harrison.
The committee devised the hunt to coincide with the theme of jewels, gold and treasure, media coordinator Jan McCauley said.
“This is the first year for it,” she said. “(The committee) really wanted people to go, ‘Oh, that was fun!’ … to have something unusual.”
HUNTING HIGH AND LOW
Shane Freeman spent hours at the club and came up with the “treasure map,” a poem of rhyming couplets, chock-full of clues that would lead a clever person to the end of a hunt with the lucky number 13 to win the jewels.
“From griffins, crows, a rabbit in a hat, to a wolf at the door, keep moving, don’t linger, you have to do much more,” read the clues, etched on individual maps of torn paper rubbed with coffee grinds to look worn and old.
Mrs. Hibbs said the hunt was difficult because of several obtuse clues, such as the “Tolstoy Masterpiece” which was two paintings entitled “War” and “Peace.”
“I was thinking it was a book,” she said, smiling. “But I had no idea I would win a fabulous prize! I thought you just solved the puzzle.”
The ball continued with an ongoing silent auction, with items ranging from pound cakes to zoo trips, and from sapphire rings to French candlesticks.
Wesley Beard came back for a sixth venture as auctioneer of the live auction, beckoning guests to donate “to fund the life vein of the museum so that it can create a legacy for years to come.”
Big-ticket items included a trip to Angel Fire, N.M., won by Betty King for $3,250, a bridge/mah-jongg luncheon for 50 ladies won by Robin Rogers for $3,250, and a Cancun vacation won by Buck Files for $3,200.
The night’s loudest screams came from the Ma-Yas, a mah-jongg club in Tyler who won an extravagant Mardi Gras party at the home of Dick and Betty Summers for $6,500.
Sue Garrett, Betty Danielson, Karma Crisp and Mary Allen Hughes originally planned to bid no more than $5,400, but caved when the opportunity arose to donate more money to the museum.
Ms. McCauley estimated the ball reaped more than $50,000. All proceeds go to the TMA.
