The 100th Cinderella Ball – A Milestone Celebration
The Duquesne Club Ballroom hummed as 300 guests in tuxedos and floor-length gowns –families, friends, and past debutantes, Prince Charmings, and Cinderellas — gathered for the 100th Presentation of the Debutantes of the Cinderella Ball.
The venue shimmered with flowers on gold pedestals on each table by Jeff Donati of Pete Donati & Sons, and the music of Rick Purcell and his band filled the air. The focus would be on this year’s debutantes: Miss Madison Jane Davies; Miss Catherine Kilner Maxwell; Miss Elsa Allison Mitchell; Miss Cassandra Ryan Sauer; Miss Caroline Cromwell Smith; Miss Ella Camille Van Norman; Miss Clarke Elizabeth Wickland, and Miss Caroline Rose Zelt.
Ball Chairs Christina Rath Lamport, escorted by husband Jason Lee Lamport, and Britton Wean Orzechowski, escorted by husband Jarrett David Orzechowski, kicked off the evening, followed by the 2026 presenters, who dropped the names of the debutantes into a silver bowl — each young lady a candidate to become Cinderella.
Twenty young gentlemen then entered, taking their places along the runway to the stage. Two unrolled a white cloth the length of the runway as the others knelt in a cascading fashion, facing the stage where the debutantes would emerge. One by one, each of the eight debutantes entered through a floral archway atop the stage, taking the hand of their father or presenter. Each curtsied to the audience as her name was announced.
Emcee Addison Lanier II announced that the annual Cinderella Women’s Committee Scholarship will now be known as the Courtney Cairns Keevican Memorial Scholarship, in memory of Courtney Keevican, a 1997 Cinderella Ball Debutante, who exemplified the scholarship’s spirit of service. This year’s scholarship – for the debutante who volunteers the most hours – went to Miss Cassandra Ryan Sauer and Miss Clarke Elizabeth Wickland. Each contributed 68 volunteer hours to the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, the beneficiary of the 100th Cinderella Ball.
The 2026 Prince Charming was Hunter Rombauer “Bauer” Brown, Jr., whose father had the same title nearly 30 years ago. From the silver bowl, Bauer drew the card of the lucky debutante who would be this year’s Cinderella — Miss Ella Camile Van Norman — and together, the pair waltzed by the stage, soon joined by the other debutantes and their presenters.
Two debutantes were the third generation to be presented in their families. Miss Catherine Kilner Maxwell’s great-grandmother Daphne Edith Firth was presented in 1940, and her grandmother, Rachel McMasters Hunt was presented in 1972. Miss Caroline Cromwell Smith traveled from her home in Palm Beach Gardens, FL for her presentation, following in the footsteps of her grandmother, Jamie Wise Lanier, co-founder and President of the Cinderella Women’s Committee, and her mother, Courtney Kunsman Smith, also a CWC member.
At the stroke of midnight, the fairy-tale night a century in the making came to a close — another beautiful evening added to the collection of memories for the debutantes and their families.
