Most of the 260 guests at the ”Plain & Fancy” ball last weekend celebrating the 25th anniversary of Glen Ellyn`s College of Du Page were very serious about complying with the theme.
They wore both plain and fancy clothes.
Harold McAninch, college president, set the pace in a black tuxedo jacket with blue jeans, Indian jewelry belt and brown boots. His wife, Karyl, wore a black leather jacket over a silver lame sweater with black designer jeans.
Robert McCray, a retired Glen Ellyn surgeon, came in black tuxedo jacket with a tape measure hooked to his gray jeans, noting that woodworking is now his avocation. He also wore a green Illinois Prairie Path cap, symbolizing his position as Trails Committee chairman of the Du Page County Conservation Foundation.
”There are more half tuxedos here than anything else,” said Nancy Pfahl, director of the college`s grants office.
The uniform of the evening at the Drake Oak Brook Hotel seemed to be half fancy and half plain, though John and Dolores Potterton of Naperville were an exception. She was resplendent in an elegant cream-colored gown, while her husband-an executive in an accounting firm-didn`t mind that she said he was plain in his ”uniform” of gray suit and blue tie.
The ball was a benefit for the college and was sponsored by the College of Du Page Foundation and College of Du Page Cultural Guild. The unique theme was the brainchild of Richard Petrizzo, vice president for external affairs, who said, ”We wanted something that was different.”
The highlight of the ball was an auction of items ranging from five days at a fitness spa to a set of golf clubs. One feature was a Chinese gourmet dinner for eight, valued at $200, with the winner providing the food and President McAninch doing the cooking.
It sold for a whopping $825.
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