County, Red & White Charity Balls Cancelled for High Schoolers

According to the Board of Directors for the County Assemblies, Inc.: the Red & White Charity Ball for high school seniors, and the County Assembly Charity Ball for high school juniors, are both cancelled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The charity ball tradition began in 1938 with a Christmas dance at the Red Barn for Westport teens. Since then, the non-profit organization welcomes high school juniors and seniors from Easton, Fairfield, Redding, Weston, Westport and Wilton to register for their grade’s dance at the Stamford Marriott - formerly held at The Inn at Longshore. The Junior and Senior dances are split into tri-town areas: Westport, Weston, Wilton as one group, and Easton, Redding, and Fairfield as the other group.

Tradition made it mandatory that the girls-asked-boys to the dances, and paid the $150 per-couple registration fee for the black tie event. It was not until 2018 that the Board of Directors announced that they would welcome ”…as an exception for the LGBTQ community, boys bringing a male escort” to the typically female-only registration system.

All money collected goes towards area charities benefiting children and teens. This year they were able to donate more than $60,000 to area food pantries throughout the region.

From the County Assemblies Board of Directors:

“The County Assemblies is taking a break for our 2021 events and we look forward to resuming our Charity Balls in 2022.

As a result of your generous support of our 2020 events, we awarded grants in excess of $60,000 to non-profit organizations that help children and teens in Fairfield County. Due to the additional needs of families during the pandemic, we supported food pantries in Easton, Redding, Fairfield, Norwalk, Weston, Westport and Wilton.”