Saturday, July 19, 2008

My CF benefit back in May

I am copying this blog from an older blog that I have that I am currently getting rid of. So for many of you this is old information so just bear with me please :)

OMG the benefit was AMAZING! We had a HUGE turnout! By our estimations we had over 250 people there. We raised *drumroll* over $12,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it?????????? Our goal was $8,000! We still have more money coming in to from friends that did fundraising at work. I am completely shocked and so happy!

We had the entance fee of $25 then we were selling chances for a 32" flat screen which most people bought at 5 for $20 and then we had 50/50s for $10 for an arms length (most people bought 1 or 2 arms lengths), then we had the Chinese auction with 21 baskets with tickets for $1 each. People were buying 20-40 tickets at a time!!! Then we sold jello shots for $1 each. People were buying 5 shots and giving us $10 and saying keep the change. It was so awesome! And we had a massuese (sp) there charging $5 for 5 minutes and $10 for 10 minutes (she kept the money though but it was nice to have her there). And we were also giving out tattoos for free. You will see those on alot of the pics I post hehe.

The day exhausted me and I didn't get out of bed until 1:30pm today haha! I was a nervous wreck for the first hour and a half because I had to give a thank you speech. Here is what I said:

I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight. It means a great deal to me and all the other people affected by CF. Thanks to generous people like you I have been able to do more than I ever dreamed possible. So from the bottom of my heart THANK YOU.

I know short sweet and to the point haha! I was so nervous even though I knew 90% of the people at the benefit! My mouth was so dry I stopped once and said "sorry I am a little nervous".

Well it was awesome to see all my friends and some of my family come out to support me and CF. It was such an amazing feeling! I was so happy to see so many people there. And to also see them reading about Lindsey and Tracy. And picking up donor brochures and taking them home. And reading about the donor myths I put on each table. Even if 3 people sign up to donate their organs I consider that a success.

As I stated before I was a wreck knowing I was going on stage to say thank you to everyone! I made a few people cry (the speech was so short I don't get it!!!). I met a man who stopped in to donate money who has a 5 year old daughter with CF. He was thrilled to meet me and see how well I was doing. He left his name and said next year if we do another to let him know and he will help and get lots of people to come. He said they usually do the Great Strides walk but since it was a Holy Communion weekend around here he couldn't go. Later on in the night I was in the bathroom and a lady came up to me and she said "I am so sorry to ask this but I have no idea what CF is". I told her it wasn't a problem and I gave her a shortened version of what CF entails. I was glad I got to educate someone.

Pretty much all night I was strapped to my IVs but I said it was good because then people see just what I go though and maybe we made more money because of it.

I was glad my brother and SIL came out too. I wasn't sure if she would make it since my nephew's birthday party was the next day but they did and they had a good time. It was hard at first with a lot of people coming up and saying they were sorry but eventually people stopped and they started to enjoy themselves.

We have so much food left over I spent all day today delivering some to people who wanted leftovers. I took some too since I never got a chance to eat any of it that night. I think that is about it. I took $1200 and will be putting it into a CD so that when I go out on SSDI and I am applying I will have some money to hold me over. That was the plan from the beginning. I got to keep the 50/50 and Chinese auction money. Fine by me...makes me feel a little better come the time for me to stop working entirely. Well I think that is it for now.

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