Club Cabaret: Get On Your Duds, Denim and Diamonds

On Feb. 28, Northwest Academy will hold its 14th annual fundraising event: Club Cabaret. The event is titled Denim and Diamonds and has a Western theme.

All of the money raised from the event goes to the Northwest Academy scholarship fund.

“Club Cabaret has come to be our school’s annual way for our supporters and donors to help us raise scholarship dollars and still have fun doing it,” Mary Folberg, Head of School, said.

Club Cabaret is the largest fundraiser of the year for Northwest Academy’s scholarship fund.

“One in five Northwest Academy students is on scholarship to attend our school so this is a great way for us to raise money for the scholarship fund and also get together and have a party and support the school,” Laurel Keppy, Director of Development, said.

The event has been very successful in the past.

“It’s a really fun event and last year we raised over $150,000 for the scholarship fund,” Keppy said.

Club Cabaret is an event for parents of students, as well as members of the Northwest Academy community. It is held at the Portland Art Museum and has auctions and a performance. The night starts out with a V.I.P reception held in the museum’s Sunken Ballroom.

The first event of the night is a silent auction.

“It has all these items–artwork [and] kids photography–things that have been donated,” Folberg said. “It goes from about five to a quarter to seven and then… everybody goes upstairs to the Kridel Ballroom and that’s at the top of the art museum.”

In the ballroom, there will be dinner and an auction, followed by a performance by Northwest Academy students.

“It’s going to be really cool; we have a lot of singing and dancing and a band and there’s a cool storyline too,” Harper Jensen, a freshman and dancer in Club Cabaret, said.

The show is the last part of the event, but often garners the most attention.

“One of the reasons we put the show last is because in most auctions people get up and leave early; they buy what they want and they go,” Folberg said. “Well, everybody wants to see that show. So we put it at the end so everybody stays through it.”

The story is about an annual hoedown in Houston, Texas.

“The guy who runs the show, … Rex, needs funding, so someone named Laura Lee Bartlett comes and funds it,” Jensen said. “But she wants a big, sparkly diamond themed show and he wants a down to earth hoedown.”

The show has been in many places thematically including Havana, New York, Rio de Janeiro, London and Paris. In the past Club Cabaret has been located at the Melody Ballroom and the Oregon Zoo, before moving to the Portland Art Museum.

“We generally pick a location and then base the theme around that, but also including consideration for what songs there are from those places and what works well for the show,” Keppy said.

Already, the event is looking like it will be a success.

“We have a great live auction lineup this year and we have a challenge grant issued by the quest foundation for $55,000, so if we can raise $55,000 they will match it, which is a great opportunity,” Keppy said.”

Tickets are $150 for club level and $250 for patron level.