Editor, News-Register:

Twelve years ago, after being present at its preparations for a decade and serving as a page, I declined an invitation to be a member of the cotillion in the Viennese Winter Ball. While leaving Wheeling to go to university a year early was the right decision for me, giving up the position offered me was a sacrifice; now that the Ball is permanently ending after 44 years, everyone loses.

The Ball functioned as a fundraising event for the Wheeling Symphony; having little information about the committee’s reasons for cancelling the event other than “rising costs”, I can only assume that the event was not generating much money, perhaps none. In any case, the Executive Committee has missed the mark regarding what makes the event successful. While it’s reasonable to see a fundraiser in light of its utility, the real importance of the Ball was what it gave to the people who participated in it and the community as a whole.

The Ball stood contrary to a world that is increasingly digitized and a people isolated. It brought young people back to traditions that most have forgotten: in learning how to waltz, they discovered a sort of fun that is not passive, but which requires skill, thought, and attention; in learning the rules of etiquette, they discovered the confidence to interact without awkwardness; in amassing volunteer hours so that they might be selected for cotillion, they learned the good of serving the community.

The Ball was important because it signifies a lost world–one full of culture and ritual and things that may seem useless, but which are actually of great importance. It was a reminder that when we boil our lives down to the bare necessities (working, eating, sleeping, and streaming) we find that there is nothing much to live for. Experiencing the Ball made you feel as though you were walking back in time: in its elegance and ceremony it stood as a bulwark of tradition in a world that is changing too rapidly. Hoop skirts, tuxedos, and gloves past your elbows, a grand herald, and a parade of desserts all seem silly in the abstract until you experience them as part of a sparkling, musical scene and realize that we were meant for something more than the workaday world–indeed, that work is for occasions like this: beauty and friendship and things out of the ordinary.

I hope that those who have made the Ball possible all these years know what a gift they have given to the community. Rather than see the Ball as merely a fundraiser, we should see it as something for which it is worthwhile to fundraise. Charitable trusts exist which would be likely to help, and perhaps Oglebay should consider lowering venue and food costs as they are able. The Ball is a good thing for the community as a whole. Wheeling should be proud of it, and we should do what we can to restore it to a place of prominence.

Annemarie Krall

Wheeling