ELMIRA, N.Y.(WENY)-- The Clemens Center officially announced its annual "Backstage Pass" Gala has been postponed until August, but they are still hosting a virtual gala this Saturday, April 25th. The gala will include a "red carpet" zoom entrance, where guests are welcome to enter the virtual chat to see all of their friends and introduce themselves. Then guests are asked to head over to the auction page, where they can pre-register for the auction if they'd like, and bid on an array of different items. This virtual gala is important for the Clemens Center as they are still paying their employees their usual wages, even though they are completely shut down for the time being. 

"We still need to raise the funds that the gala would have raised anyway. We still have production cost, maintenance cost for the building and employee salary. So that all helps contribute to all of those operating expenses that we have," Karen Cromer, Executive Director of the Clemens Center.

To learn more about Saturday's event and how you can get involved, you can click here. 

For those who bought tickets to the original gala scheduled for Saturday, the in person gala has been re-scheduled for August 29th and all previously bought tickets will be honored at that event.