Wabash CannonBall Kansas City chair couple are excited for the 2026 event
The 2026 Wabash CannonBall Kansas City gala will take place on Feb. 27, 2026, but Marc ’05 and Bridgette Shaffer are already getting ready for the event.
The Shaffers are the chair couple for the upcoming gala. They, along with a steering committee and the K-State Alumni Association staff, are working hard to secure sponsorships, tables and more.
“I’m considering buying a deep plum purple tux,” Marc said.
The Wabash CannonBall Kansas City is an annual evening full of dining, dancing and cocktails to raise scholarship money for students from the Kansas City metro area to attend K-State. To date, the gala has awarded more than 1,200 scholarships for Kansas City-area students totaling $3 million. The Wabash CannonBall Kansas City also has funded a scholarship endowment fund totaling more than $4 million that will create student opportunities for years to come.
As time gets closer the committee will plan the menu, and extra touches to give the event some additional K-State purple flair.
“It's a well-oiled machine,” Marc said. “So when you consider, how can you improve something that's already good, it's hard to make changes to it. But I think every chair couple wants to make their imprint or try something new. Just figuring out what that might look like and mean for Bridgette and myself is interesting, because you don't want to try to fix something that isn't broken.”
The Shaffers have been in Kansas City for nearly 20 years, where they’ve found and built a community. Marc recently wrote a book about building community, called One for All.
Marc has had success as a financial planner. He is a Certified Financial Planner professional and CFO of Searcy Financial Services in Overland Park, Kansas. K-State, the Alumni Association and the College of Health and Human Sciences recognized him as an Alumni Fellow in 2023. He’s stayed involved with K-State through many ways including the KC Catbackers, Kansas City Alumni Club, service on the College of Health and Human Sciences advisory board and most recently as a KSU Foundation trustee.
Bridgette is the health director for Jackson County, Missouri. While she didn’t go to K-State – in fact she got her master’s degree from the University of Kansas – Marc said she’s embraced being a K-Stater.
“It's been fun to watch her step up and realize that she can lead in purple too, but we're a house divided, and she reminds me of that every once a while, but I have to be a little bit louder because of it,” he said.
They first started attending the Wabash CannonBall Kansas City in 2013. Marc said he knew early on he wanted to get more involved.
“It’s gotten so popular over the last few years,” Marc said. “We warn people, if they don't follow up within a certain date, they're not going to get a table. And we have sold out the last two years earlier and earlier each year. When you call somebody, or you send the message to a sponsor, you don't have to sell anything. You just tell them, it's for K-State. And people are really drawn to it. It's a fun event, and it benefits the students in this area to go to K-State.”