What's the buzz, honeybee?
Tonight, I saw more than ten thousand dollars get raised in just about fifteen minutes.
The emcee asked everyone in attendance to donate just another twenty bucks before leaving...and folks responded justthatfast, using their cell phones to make the money transfer.
Wow.
Tonight, I saw the price for a Labrador retriever puppy soar from an initial bid of $500 (made by Kelly, a woman at my table) to a cool three thousand dollars from a woman two tables over.
A week in a four-bedroom villa in Costa Rica started at $1000 and ended at $2800.
A night in Hilton Head opened at $100 and was soon over $1000.
These folks know how to raise money.
It helps that the money being raised is going to save the lives of children fallen prey to cancer.
It helps even more that many in attendance know someone who has a child stricken with a brain tumor or leukemia or a variety of other childhood cancers.
Even I have a now-teenaged niece who had a malignant cancer in her eye. Every year, she and her mom (my stepsister) make the trek up north to verify the cancer has not returned.
I'm certainly aware of organizations that fight cancers in children, like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and their Light The Night Walk. I've done that a time or two, remember?
However, I do admit to not being aware of organizations devoted solely to research to eradicate cancers in our young ones. I had not heard of CURE Childhood Cancer until tonight.
And I certainly was not familiar with Sisters On A Journey and the fact that Georgia has several chapters of the group to raise money for Catie's Fund, a fund of CURE.
Tonight, though, I became enlightened.
My first niece had called me last night. Did I have plans for Saturday night? Would I care to accompany her for a free dinner at the Alee Temple?
I knew full well that I had intended to go to the MENSA dinner, possibly following that with the "VISIONS: An Odyssey in Black Dance" or SSC's "Romeo and Juliet".
Instead, I said to her, "what am I doing tomorrow night?"
And together we joined other women - and a few men - at the Sisters On A Journey Dinner - Savannah at the Alee Temple. The seats were originally $35 each, but Christina's friend had two cancellations at one of the two tables she hosted. Lucky break for us!
Our table had been decorated for summertime days, with bees and honey and giant sunflower balloons. Lovely! We even had the bee-utiful cookies in the above photo! Mason jars for beverages, cupcakes with honey cream frosting, and even little honey bears to take home! Oh, and we even had our own nametags with little sunflowers on them!
What to do?
Well, there was a huge area full of items to bid on for the Silent Auction.
There was a 50-50 Raffle and even raffle tickets for some special last-minute items. She and I both spent five bucks for a 50-50 ticket. All told, 482 of those tickets were purchased and the winner did as we would have: donated her half toward the CURE.
Very nice!
What else did we have?
Live music! Tell Scarlet is a family that plays together, keeping our toes tapping to 70's, 80's, and 90's tunes for most of the evening!
Live auction! Kenny Williams was amazing! Not only could he keep up a nonstop patter, he was also adept at running up the bids to their absolute maximum. Good job!
Live food! Hahahaha haha! Gotcha with that one! The food was all cooked and quite tasty: succulent chicken breasts, sweet baby carrots, fabulous green beans, and excellent dinner rolls! I even heard the mashed potatoes were very good!
Five hours later, I was home again and feeling blessed.
Thank you, dearest Christina, for inviting me to this loving event.
Thank you, her friend Christy, for making me feel like I had been invited all along.
Thank you, my tablemates, for lively conversation and laughs.
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