Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505300069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"You figured the young people would tear things up," said Jane Stephenson, the Jefferson Center's executive director and manager.
As it turned out, Stephenson was fretting over the wrong group. The teens, who brought in a rock band, came and went without a trace.
But the hundreds of grown-ups who gathered there Thursday night for the Festival in the Park black tie gala didn't make as graceful an exit.
And they left an indelible impression on Stephenson and the center.
Susan King, who works in one of about 17 offices in the center, was shocked by what party-goers had left behind. The stench of alcohol hit her first; the gooey, sticky floor was next.
The center has "never looked like this before, not ever. This is the worst," King said. "That must have been some party."
It's not like this was the first party the center has hosted. There have been countless others. But most times, the day after the party is no different from the day before, she said.
That wasn't the case Friday. The center King found that morning was a far cry from the one she had left behind the night before at quitting time.
The gray carpet was stained with food and drink, the tiled floors were coated with liquor and glitter and the walls wore black smudges. One upstairs wall had a golf ball-sized hole in it. Even the wood paneling bore nicks and scratches.
"We've had weddings here with up to 600 people, but never have we had this many spills," Stephenson said.
And then there were the chandeliers.
The bowls that hold the lights were filled with pink and white paper. That paper started as play money for the blackjack tables Thursday night. By night's end, people were using it as confetti, sailing the paper overhead as they danced and frolicked.
"Everyone was dancing and throwing it. At the time, no one thought much of it," said Mark Loftis, president of the board of directors of Festival in the Park.
By morning, though, that paper and how to retrieve it was on everyone's mind.
"We thought when we put those up that when we went up to change one light bulb that we would change them all because we knew it would be difficult to do. It'll take a scaffold ... I guess we'll be going up there sooner than we thought," Stephenson said.
She spent her morning patroling the building and capturing the damage on film.
Once she voiced her concerns, the calls to apologize starting arriving in waves from event planners - so many that she had to have a volunteer handle the phones.
"We want to make sure everything gets restored," said Loftis, who had a few volunteers on hand helping with the clean-up. "We've tried to do whatever needs to be done."
As for next year's gala, he's hoping the center will have them again.
"We'd love to come back and do things here," Loftis said. "This is one of the nicest places in Roanoke."
It's also the nicest locale for the gala, he said. It has previously been held in the First Street Fire Station.
Despite the enormous clean-up, Stephenson said the festival hasn't worn out its welcome.
"Next time, we'll just pad the walls," she said.
by CNB