CITY AFLUTTER OVER BUTTERFLY BALL
Byline: Lisa Bertagnoli
String ensembles meeting guests as they emerged from their cars, a dinner served by the city’s premier caterer, and a view of a beautiful garden might be enough to satisfy guests at an ordinary party. But the 600 or so people who attended the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum’s Butterfly Ball were treated to something completely different: an array of 1,200 butterflies of all shapes, colors and sizes.
The butterflies are part of the museum’s showpiece, the Judy Istock Butterfly Museum. And the ball was held June 16 to raise money for the year-old museum, part of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. United Airlines was the gala’s major sponsor.
Susan (Mrs. Roger W.) Stone chaired the ball, assisted by co-chairs Ann (Mrs. John D.) Gray and Judy (Mrs. S. Jay) Stewart.
“I’m thrilled to say it was beyond a dream,” said Susan Stone. “Somebody must have thrown some magic dust.”
The committee, Stone added, “set out to do something romantic and dreamy, a very summery, ephemeral look.” That proved a challenge, considering the museum is housed in a modern Perkins & Will building. Stone solved the problem of high, industrial ceilings by covering them with paper lanterns, each softly lighting the three party rooms.
The rooms were decorated in soft lavender, dusky pink and dusty green. Each chairwoman hosted a room, and dressed in colors to match. Stone, for instance, wore silver Escada for her role in the lavender room, and Judy Stewart wore a pink, long-skirted St. John evening dress.
All told, the evening garnered about $550,000 for the nature museum.
At least one contributor, Randolph Read, got something in return. In 1963, Read’s brother, Rory, was the youngest child ever to be invited to join the Chicago Academy of Sciences summer program. A year later, Randolph became the youngest. In addition to contributing, Read bought tickets for the grand-prize raffle, a $5,000 shopping spree at Neiman Marcus. He won.
For more information on the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, call (773) 549-0606.
