stopping the combo index changed event

I have an array list that I use as the datasource of a combobox. When I set the datasource of the combo equal to the arraylist, it triggers the combo index changed event once for every item in the array list.

Now usually this wouldn't matter but in this case as there is a sizeable amount of code that runs for the index changed event, I don't want this to happen.

My work around is a boolean for the event to run or not but this is ugly, is there any other way around this?

try this
combo.items.addrange(arraylist)

VB Code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
 
        Dim employees() As String = New String() {"Hamilton, David", _
            "Hensien, Kari", "Hammond, Maria", "Harris, Keith", _
            "Henshaw, Jeff D.", "Hanson, Mark", "Harnpadoungsataya, Sariya", _
            "Harrington, Mark", "Harris, Keith", "Hartwig, Doris", _
            "Harui, Roger", "Hassall, Mark", "Hasselberg, Jonas", _
            "Harnpadoungsataya, Sariya", "Henshaw, Jeff D.", "Henshaw, Jeff D.", _
            "Hensien, Kari", "Harris, Keith", "Henshaw, Jeff D.", _
            "Hensien, Kari", "Hasselberg, Jonas", "Harrington, Mark", _
            "Hedlund, Magnus", "Hay, Jeff", "Heidepriem, Brandon D."}
 
        ComboBox1.Items.Clear()
        ComboBox1.Items.AddRange(employees)
        ComboBox1.SelectedIndex = 0
 
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub ComboBox1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ComboBox1.SelectedIndexChanged
 
        MsgBox(ComboBox1.Items.Item(ComboBox1.SelectedIndex))
 
    End Sub

I got it from MS. Works perfect.

ok well I tried this

Me.ComboBox1.Items.AddRange(myArrayList)

but got this error:
arraylist cannot be converted to a one dimesional array.:(