Northern Ball to bring down-home atmosphere

Montana State University-Northern Chancellor James Limbaugh and his wife, Trish, spoke and expressed their excitement Thursday about changes made to the We Love Northern Ball this year.

“The We Love Northern Ball is the premier social event for the university,” James Limbaugh said.

Northern has been hosting the ball for 28 years. James Limbaugh said it was started and organized by community members and then was taken over by the MSU-N Alumni Foundation.

This year is the first year Northern’s administration is organizing it. Trish Limbaugh is the main organizer of the event and said she has been working diligently.

“The foundation leadership asked us to do it while they worked on administration priorities,” James Limbaugh said.

The ball, at its core, is a fundraiser for scholarships and other university projects. This year, donors may choose to give their money to the scholarships or toward the Northern Montana Plains Indian Museum at Northern’s Vande Bogart Library.

Construction of the museum is underway, and dedication ceremonies will be May 2.

This ball will be a little different from balls past.

“We have changed the direction this year,” Trish Limbaugh said.

She talked of her and James visiting the MSU-N women’s basketball retreat at Camp Kiwanis and saw how warm and inviting the building was. Upon seeing this, Trish said she made the decision to change the ball’s usual formal aire to something more comfortable for attendees coming out of the cold.

The theme is country-inspired and the dress code will be open for people to choose whether they want to show in the customary formal dress or in their “duds.”

There will also be no auction this year.

“Auctions are a staple in fundraisers,” James Limbaugh said. “We decided to try something different.”

Money raised for the school at the ball will be completely based on ticket sales, individual donations and sponsorships.

Another way donations are coming in is through Norman’s Ranch and Sportswear.

James Limbaugh said if people go into Norman’s and tell them they are buying their “duds” for the We Love Northern Ball, the store will donate 15 percent of that sale to the occasion.

“We’re being very transparent about the money,” Trish Limbaugh said. She said she wants people to know exactly what is happening to the money they donate to the cause. For every $2,500 raised, $400 will go to costs for the night, she said. The rest goes to scholarships or the museum.

Northern’s Student Ambassadors will have a strong presence throughout the night while they dance and interact with other attendees.

“They’re just great kids here,” James Limbaugh said. “They’re respectful, responsible … . We want donors to meet our best and brightest.”

James Limbaugh said the ball sees quite an array of attendees at the ball, including senators, congressmen and other chancellors, but the Havre community attending is the most important to him.

“The community loves this university,” James Limbaugh said.

The schedule for the night is from 6 to 7 p.m., there will be a family of fiddlers from Chinook playing country music, from 7 to 8 p.m. is dinner and from 8 to 9 p.m., there will be square-dancing and line-dancing. Trish said she is trying to get a caller to come for the square-dancing to teach and call out various moves and figures to give the square-dancing a more traditional flavor.

After 9 p.m., attendees can dance to the deejay’s music.

The We Love Northern Ball is open to the people of community, James Limbaugh said.

Tickets are $50 per person, $25 of which goes to scholarships. Table sponsorships are available for $1,000.

James Limbaugh will also introduce a pledge drive at the ball. For every $100 donated, one entry will be submitted into a raffle drawing to win Cat-Griz tickets. There will be two drawings and entries will be accepted until May. Money donated to the ball can count toward entries.

Since 1999, 221 scholarships have been awarded through the ball for a total value of $155,125.