Event co-chairs Jenny and Jeremiah Condon and Danielle and Tommy Pingel, will be hosting the 38th annual Friends of St. Edmond Ball from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. live on the Saint Edmond Development Office Facebook page.

The show will feature live music and entertainment, a tour of the new Holy Trinity Catholic Church, a blooper reel, special guests, live auction updates and more.

In honor of longtime St. Edmond Director of Development Tom Miklo, who is retiring at the end of May, the live event is going to feature a comedy roast of Miklo starring several recognizable members of the community.

“We’re just trying to give people the best live experience that they can have,” Jenny Condon said.

-Submitted photo
Tommy and Danielle Pingel and their kids, left, pose for a photo with Jeremiah and Jenny Condon and their kids, right, in the new Holy Trinity Catholic Church. The Pingels and the Condons are the co-chairs for this year's Friends of St. Edmond Ball.

The event chair couples know first-hand the support the ball provides the school — both couples have children who attend St. Edmond Elementary School.

“The Friends of St. Edmond Ball, the pure intention of it is to ensure the sustainability of the school and the money and proceeds from the ball go directly to the operating budget,” said Danielle Pingel. “This really ensures that we can keep the education system that we have at St. Edmond here in the community.”

In its previous 37 years, the ball has raised more than $11 million for the school, according to Jenny Condon.

“It’s been an integral part of keeping it running and evolving with updates like the new elementary school and church,” she said.

The online auction with more than 100 items is live now at www.biddingforgood.com/seball. The auction will close at 9 p.m. on Saturday.

-Messenger photo by Kelby Wingert The Sunshine Basket from Margaret Junkman's preschool class has all the necessities for a fun summer and is one of the more than 100 items up for auction for the Friends of St. Edmond Ball.

The online auction features a wide variety of items from themed gift baskets to a trip to the Bahamas to a $1,000 Iowa Central Community College scholarship to lunch with local legislators.

One of the more unique items available on the online auction is a 1913 Edison Diamond Disc B250 phonograph with more than 50 Edison records in near-mint condition. The 108-year-old phonograph is fully functional and was donated by Holy Trinity parishioners Stephen and Glenna Hawkins.

Also on the auction, science lab tables are available for “purchase” for the school. Each lab table is $500 and donors are invited to “purchase” part or all of a table for the school through the auction site.

Two other main staples of the Friends of St. Edmond Ball are the car and tuition raffles. Raffle tickets for both raffles can be purchased on the school’s website www.st-edmond.com under the “Ways to Give” tab, or by calling Mary Lynn Biggins at 515-955-6077. The drawing for the raffles will be live at 9 p.m. on the Facebook livestream.

The event itself on Saturday night is free to tune in to, Danielle Pingel said, adding that it’s going to be a lot of fun. Even just sharing the event page on Facebook helps the cause, she said.

Jenny Condon said that the organizers don’t have a specific fundraising goal in mind, but they hope to reach their average fundraising level of $300,000, and she said they’re pretty confident they will hit that mark.