Colorado Centennial Homeschool Ball
22nd Annual Colorado Centennial Homeschool Ball
When: Saturday, January 10th, 2026, 6:30-9:30 pm
Where: Douglas County Fairgrounds Events Center in Castle Rock, Colorado at 500 Fairgrounds Rd, Castle Rock, CO 80104. (See Directions page.)
What: We’re excited to announce the 21st Annual Colorado Centennial Homeschool Ball, hosted by You Can Live History!
This ball began over two decades ago (like many annual events, we missed a couple years around 2020) as an event to provide just plain clean fun for teens and their families who didn’t want to worry about the issues of modesty, rock music, inappropriate dances/movements, nor the whole guy/girl dating issue. The historic period from 1860-1876 seemed to answer all of these issues, since it was from a more formal time period without modern concerns.
We will be celebrating Colorado's bid for statehood from 1860-1876, featuring historic dances, including the Virginia Reel, Grand March, Hat Dance, and Polka. The young ladies will wear Victorian ball gowns or frontier dresses and the young men will be dressed as Victorian gentlemen, frontiersmen, soldiers, cowboys, or in other era-appropriate costumes. (Note: It was the Victorian era in England, which influenced the English-speaking world; in America it is better known as the Civil War era. At a ball in 1876 you would most likely be wearing the same ball gown you - or your mother - had in 1860, since clothes were homemade and hand-sewn. The ready-to-wear industry was just starting to develop. More history here)
You will learn about 19th century American culture and etiquette, all while having a terrific time enjoying a score of authentic period dances – ranging from waltzes to reels – all taught by a professional dance teacher and set to common 1800's tunes played by skilled musicians. Please make sure to plan your day to be available for the dance class in the morning so everyone learns the steps together.
This will be a family event with parents and young adults, thirteen and older, all dancing together. Refreshments of cookies and punch will be provided during the evening. (If you need, or can bring, gluten-free refreshments, contact us at [email protected] to be connected with the volunteer organizing that.)
We will have a maximum of 400 participants, so register soon!
To Register: Click above on "registration" in the menu bar.
Snow Date: There will be NO snow date unless the entire city is shut down by a blizzard (i.e. if DIA is closed down) therefore, partial refunds may be given only under these circumstances. We are sorry for any hardships this may cause. This is because the fairgrounds management will only reschedule our use of the facility, or refund our money, under those conditions.
Pictures from 2024 Ball:
The pictures below were taken by student photographer Owen McGough, and he took many other beautiful pictures throughout the evening. If you were there, look through the whole collection of high-resolution pictures; you may find some fun ones of friends and family, especially if a young lady in your family was introduced. Tips are appreciated for any pictures you wish to download; Owen's Venmo ID is @Owen-McGough
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Spad T-Shirt
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SPAD XIII James Norman Hall Mutiny on the Bounty Short Sleeve Military Green 100% Cotton Gildan T-Shirt
The SPADs were called "beauties", "ultimate aircraft of the war", and "more impressive by far than any other airplane, any other automobile, any other piece of equipment I had ever seen" by no less than the American Ace of Aces, and former race car celebrity, Eddie Rickenbacker.
This design celebrates a particular SPAD pilot, James Norman Hall, who at one point was Rickenbacker's commander and shared Rickenbacker's first kill. Hall had sneaked into WWI in 1914 when Americans weren't supposed to be fighting. Discovered and sent back to America, he wrote the popular pro-Allied book Kitchener's Mob. His publisher got him back in France to write about WWI aviation, but he got caught up in it instead and flew for the Lafayette Escadrille and later the 103rd Aero and 94th Aero (Hat in the Ring) Squadrons.
Having survived being shot down and captured, and then escaping in the final days of the war, after the war he co-wrote several books with a fellow pilot, Charles Nordhoff, starting with the history of the Lafayette Escadrille. Today the most famous of their collaborations is Mutiny on the Bounty, which includes a quote about ships that sounds as if the authors were thinking about airships, maybe SPADs:
For a ship is the noblest of all man's works—a cunning fabric of wood, and iron, and hemp, wonderfully propelled by wings of canvas, and seeming at times to have the very breath of life.
Hall was well-suited to write this story of Tahitian history, as he lived the rest of his life in Tahiti. Hall's daughter Nancy married Nick Rutgers of the family that founded Rutgers University. Nick was also a pilot, but in the second world war. The family legacy continues today with another flying Nick Rutgers. Hall got to know the Parks family and the families have remained friends. Nick and Nancy Rutgers are also good friends of the museum, who sponsored the VAFM's flying SPAD, painted in Hall's colors.
Our t-shirt shows Hall's SPAD in the foreground, with the ghost of the Bounty behind it.
