Sarah Todd reports from Lakeville.On Saturday, October 13, revelers donned their finest gourd masks, flapper dresses, and top hats for the North East Community Center’s annual masquerade ball. The home of hosts Robert Bristow and Pilar Proffitt (pictured at left), the architectural and interior design team behind Poesis Design, was alight with pre-Halloween merry-making. Guests sipped spiked apple cider and snuck off for tarot card readings with local psychic Diana Ziegler. Attendees who arrived mask-less were given sparkly, feathered disguises created by NECC’s Teen Team. In a barn next door, DJ Troy Ramcharran packed the dance floor with old-school crowd-pleasers (from the '70s). In between songs, guests sampled cheeses, pastries, and glasses of Tinhof Wine and bid on auction prizes that ranged from a shooting lesson courtesy of Orvis Sandanona Shooting Grounds to a bottle of whiskey from Hillrock Estate Distillery and a two-night stay at Red Lion Inn and The Porches Inn. All profits went to benefit the NECC, which serves townships throughout northeastern Dutchess County.
NECC board member Mimi Ramos Harney and 52 Main's Richard Lanka as winter and autumn; Sophia de Boer, lawyer Corina Stonebanks, and TriArts board member Alicia Fitch as Little Bo Peep.
Musician and French tutor Zach Rudes, Herrington's buyer Olivia Runge, and memoirist Deborah Feldman; writer and photographer Rebekah Blu with painter Locke King.
Teva Learning Center's Sonia Wilk, Mia Desmedt, Shivonne Quintero, and Elisheva Stark.
Artist Collin Culbreth, holistic health counselor Kate Shanley, and Ancram Distillery's Tim Welly; winemaker Erwin Tinhof with Austrian wine importer Carlo Huber.
NECC board member Kristen Hansen, Sion Boney, and Demarest Boney; teacher Christina Maraia and Solflower Farm's Andy Szymanowicz.
NECC's Teen Program director Sarah Ugolini and executive director Jenny Hansell; Brian and Flora Phillips.
Computer programmer Yosh Schulman and Teva Learning Center director Nili Simhai; Louisa Ellis owners Mark and Melissa Bigarel.
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Matteline deVries-Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon, one of the evening's honoree of this year's Upstate Benefit adresses the gala from the Caboose's caboose.
- Karen Pearson. Courtesy Art Omi.
Olana senior vice president and landscape curatorMark Prezorski, president Sean Sawyer, The evenings honoree Kristin Gamble and New York State Assemblymember Didi Barrett.
- Oxygen House Photo
