Night at the Races Huge Success!

Last Saturday we finally held our first fundraiser, A Night at the Races. I've been working non-stop planning for this since July and I couldn't have scripted it any better. Everything went great and we will clear at least $10,000!!!!!! I was thinking we'd make maybe $6,000 so I'm overjoyed with our results.

I want to thank all of my volunteers who really came through for us the past few weeks. Joyce Dawson, owner of Elm Ridge was so awesome in not only donating the hall to me but putting in alot of her time helping me decorate and set up. She was awesome during the event too taking care of all the behind the scenes stuff so I could focus on other things going on. Michelle Glauthier helped me by stamping all of my signs to make them look so nice. She has the same attention to detail that I have so it was neat to have someone as concerned as I was as to how everything should look (same w/ Joyce too). It was really important to me not only to have alot of items for auction and raffle but to have an atmosphere where people felt alot of thought went into the planning. Lisa Laterza's expertise in running a Mardi Gras every year for Victim's Assistance was great especially when it came time to close the silent auction.

The following people volunteered their time for the evening running betting booths, selling tickets and working their hineys off. Michelle Gainer-Howell, Linda Holl, Troy Lindeman, Craig & Cheryl West, Nicole & Tiffany from Precious Parents, Jim & Wendy Ray, Suzanne & John Foughty, Chuck & CrisAnn Work, Mr. Dawson & his nephew (sorry, I forgot his name but they donated back 1/2 of their tips!) and my cousin, Charlie Ries who helped so much giving me advice the past few months and helping Corey with the payout window. He has run many of these for Special Olympics in Barberton over the years. I thank you all so very much for giving back and helping make the evening better than I could have imagined!

I've received such nice feedback from everyone and how much fun they had. That was important to me because I want them to come to our next event. We had $220 donated back from race winners. The guy who ran my races said he had never seen a payback jug with a light and buzzer in his 12 years so I thought that was neat that I impressed him.

The food from Santangelo's was really yummy and Chili's delivered tons of wings, sandwiches and quesadillas. They donated them which was so nice! We put them out at 8:00 & I think they were all gone at 8:15. It was too funny. I had some hungry people there.

There were about 20 silent auction items and 20 baskets for raffle. I was still collecting items Friday afternoon & calling Michelle Glauthier to make one more label at the last minute. It was so crazy getting ready for the evening but so worth it when it was over. I really enjoy event planning anyway so doing this for our charity was so rewarding.

I've already met some wonderfully great people through Jacob's Gift that I probably wouldn't have had we not started the fund. One is Julie Barkey who lives in Canal Fulton. Those of you who know her know what a special lady she is and her husband, Hal is so nice too. Her son, Michael was killed in Iraq in 2004. She has 3 other children and her youngest, Tony is a senior on our Northwest football team. Luke looks up to him so much, literally and figuratively. He's 6'5 and 300lbs! He's a really nice boy & came to a few of Luke's flag games. Luke makes sure to see him after every Varsity game. Julie helped get the word out about Jacob's Gift to the football parents and coaches. I really want to model her when my kiddos are in high school. I appreciate her support so much and am planning on doing an event in the future with her. (After our football team goes to state and things settle down).

We were able to purchase awareness bracelets for Ryan Trewin and they were passed out last week to the kids in grades K-2. I know it meant alot to Jenni and Jose and I was so happy to be able to do this for them. We gave them to the football team and coaches too and some of them showed me Friday after the game they were wearing them which was so awesome. The Trewins are truly one of the nicest families you will ever meet and I feel honored to be able to be a part of getting prayers for Ryan. Check out Jenni's blog off of our home page.

Thanks again to all who attended, sponsored and supported us! Keep watching our website for future events.

Joanna