Richmonders were in hot pursuit of a happy New Year on Saturday night, with action from the most distant points of the suburbs to the center of the city.
Along East Grace Street and for blocks on either side, the fun started early and kicked into high gear long before the stroke of midnight, giving downtown Richmond a vibrancy not always seen after dark.
The trolley was running near the ice-skating rink at Sixth and East Broad streets, and the former Hotel John Marshall — now called the Residences at the John Marshall — was back in full swing with its first New Year's Eve bash in recent memory. Nightclubs and restaurants were filling long before midnight, and Richmond CenterStage was hosting a masquerade ball to benefit the Children's Hospital Foundation.
In the Rhythm Hall of CenterStage, a select group of 133 revelers were on hand for a 1920s speakeasy-style fundraiser complete with masked dancers, casino games and a scavenger hunt for crystals.
"It's a way to get people involved in something creative and fun," said Marcellus Jones, a local event promoter who dreamed up the night and made it happen with his company, Mr. Networker. "Hopefully, this gets more people thinking along philanthropic lines."
They were thinking, that much was certain. To participate in the hunt for 10 special crystals hidden throughout the building, the revelers had to finish lines from Shakespeare works.
"It can't be easy," Jones said with a smirk. "You need a little challenge."
But it could be fun, and the masked people streaming in behind him made sure of that.
"This is great," Dan Griffin, an independent film producer, said as he came in. "It's nice to finally take a breather after a hectic year."
Sean and Tania Donovan, Army captains stationed at Fort Lee, said they'd found the perfect way to cap off the perfect year.
"We got married," Sean said.
The happy couple, who live in Chesterfield County, weren't sure how they'd top that in 2012, but they weren't too worried about it, either.
"We'll find a way," Tania said.
"We're moving to a state we've never been to," Sean said. "Our next posting is in Washington, so that's going to be exciting."
Sandi Welch, a Bon Air resident and a professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, said she was ready for 2012.
"It's going to be a great year," she said as her husband, Randy, talked with their friends Robert and Vivian Johnson from Charlottesville. "I just have a really hopeful outlook for the year."
The mood seemed contagious, and that made Jones happy.
"It's a good way to end the year."
But his party wasn't the only place Richmonders were letting 2011 spill into 2012. In Carytown, Byrd Theatre general manager Todd Schall-Vess was headed back to the roof for what has become his annual tradition, sending a specially lighted ball up an even more specially lighted pole to signal a new year.
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