Fur Ball Raises Funds For Humane Society

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

By Mike Shands

High Country residents will have a ball while helping their animal friends.

The Watauga Humane Society is holding its third annual Fur Ball Saturday, July 8 at Blowing Rock's Green Park Inn Resort.

The event, which lasts from 5:30 to 11 p.m., will feature dinner, music, dancing, a cocktail hour and a silent auction.

"Our sales are looking good, but we still have a few tickets left," said Dee Dundon, president of the Watauga Humane Society. "Last year, we raised about $3,000 with the Fur Ball, and we're hoping to top that this year.

Money raised from the Fur Ball will help the society build more kennels.

"We originally started it as kind of a celebration of meeting the challenge of building our new kennels, and everybody had such a wonderful time, we decided to do it again," Dundon said.

For the third year, the popular band Cloud Nine, now known as Laditude( pictured left), will provide live music for the event.

The festivities kick off at 5:30 with cocktail hour and a cash bar outside by the pool. A buffet dinner, prepared by Green Park Inn's chef Jon Peavey, will be served from 6:30 to 7:30, followed by music and dancing from 7:30 to 11.

Throughout the evening, organizers will hold a silent auction from 5:30 to 10.

Several area businesses and restaurants have donated items for the auction including memberships at Westglo Spa and Deer Valley Tennis Club, a year of free compact discs and monthly video rentals from Fat Cats Music and Video, plants, coupons for free veterinary services and several other gift certificates for various items and services.

Tickets for the Fur Ball are $50, of which $33 is tax deductible. Contact Jan Watson at 264-1743 or Betty Hunt at 295-3096 for more information.

Those who won't be able to attend the event but would still like to make a contribution to the humane society can make a check out to Watauga Humane Society and mail it to Watson at 196 Paul Critcher Drive, Boone, N.C., 28607, or Hunt at P.O. Box 2302, Blowing Rock, N.C., 28605.

Those who are able to attend the ball will enjoy the music of Laditude, which formed in 1994 in Boone as Cloud Nine, but changed its name earlier this year.

The band plays a wide variety of tunes including Top 40, rock and roll, jazz, Motown, country, beach music and funk.

Members of the band, who bring more than 50 years of collective stage experience to the performance, include Ken Laderoute on guitar, vocals harmonica and flute; Amy Laderoute as lead vocalist and on keyboards; Wes Powers on drums; Klee Liles on bass and vocals; and Jason Buelow on keyboards and vocals.

The Laderoutes have played music all their lives. During a 14-year career as professional entertainers, they have performed in major cities across Canada and the United States, touring with musical groups ranging from rock bands to Las Vegas style show-groups.

They have recorded two albums and several singles, two of which hit the Top 40 charts in Canada.

Liles, a graduate of East Carolina University, has been entertaining audiences for more than 12 years both as a solo artist and as a bassist with various groups.

A native of Wisconsin, Buelow performed with The Kids from Wisconsin before moving to Florida to work with the Boca Raton Symphonic Pops Orchestra and to serve as musical director for various cruise ships.

He recently received his master's degree in theory and composition from Appalachian State University.

Another East Carolina graduate, Powers began playing drums when he was 12. His interests in percussion also include marching percussion, hand drumming and mallet studies. Powers has performed throughout the Southeast and also teaches privately and in Burke County public schools.

Ken Laderoute said the band is happy to help the humane society out.

"Amy is directly involved with the humane society. It's a little pet project for us, trying to help that cause," he said. "It's an important cause to both of us. We're both animal lovers."