Mardi Gras King & Queen Candidates Need Your Votes To Help Abused Children

Wednesday, February 6, 2019 at 10:53 AM

By Mike Perleberg @mikedup84

Five couples from across southeastern Indiana are competing for the honor of Mardi Gras King & Queen by helping the Children's Advocacy Center.

Casey Knigga and Toni Minning are Dearborn County's nominees for the king and queen of the 2019 Mardi Gras Ball to benefit the Children’s Advocacy Center of Southeastern Indiana. Photo provided.

(Dearborn County, Ind.) – The party is sold out, but you can still have a say in who will be southeastern Indiana’s Mardi Gras king and queen.

And you’ll be helping out local abused and neglected children with your votes.

The fifth annual Mardi Gras Ball to benefit the Children’s Advocacy Center of Southeastern Indiana will happen Saturday, February 23 at the Lawrenceburg Event Center and Hotel. The event raises tens of thousands of dollars for the center each year, much of it through a competition to crown the ball’s king and queen.

In the royalty race, one couple from each CAC county compete against the others to raise the most money. Each dollar donated equals one vote.

This year’s king and queen nominees include:

Dearborn County – Casey Knigga and Toni Minning
Jefferson County – Kate and David Sutter
Ohio County – Carrie and Joe Fisk
Ripley County – Kim and Paul Adams
Switzerland County – Jennifer and Allen Scudder

Decatur, Jackson, and Jennings counties are also part of the CAC service area.

Knigga and Minning have been working over the past couple months to raise money to bring the crowns back to Dearborn County.

They are selling raffle tickets for a $2,000 landscape makeover from their business, Casey’s Outdoor Solutions, with proceeds going toward the CAC Mardi Gras fundraiser. They’ll also have a few surprises to raise money the night of the Mardi Gras Ball.

“We have a couple other tricks up our sleeve,” says Minning.

CAC donations/votes to any of the nominees can be made at http://cacsoutheast.org/donate.php.

Those attending the sold-out CAC Mardi Gras Ball presented by CalComm Indiana will enjoy a happy hour, dinner, silent and live auction, and live music by The Chuck Taylors.

The 2018 Mardi Gras Ball raised a grand total of $136,683.42 for the CAC. The royalty nominees combined to raise $59,422 of that, led by $26,569 from king and queen Lance and Katie Collier of Switzerland County.

Listen to Eagle Country 99.3's interview with Casey Knigga and Toni Minning in the audio player below.