Bestest Friend and I are doing a blog project. Every day we will write a blog post on a pre-determined topic chosen by a random noun generator. The theme for the twenty-third day of the month is "Atmosphere."
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This weekend was crazy, my friends. CRAZY. I am someone who likes to mostly sit on the couch and read on weekends, but I had multiple events lined up for Saturday and Sunday and found myself collapsing into bed at the end of the night, WAY PAST MY BEDTIME. I know some of you are busy, busy, busy on the weekends all the time and I will tell you that I have no idea how you do it because I found it exactly the opposite of restful!
For months, two of the board members at the community center have been planning a fundraising gala. It was definitely NOT ideal to host this when there were no office staff to help us keep track of RSVPs and payments, but here we are. They did so much work planning it and it ran so smoothly and raised lots of money. I was just so impressed with it!
The thing I love about our community center is how delightfully lovely this room looks all done up for dinner AND how we do yoga in this very same room.
We had dinner (family style pasta with cheesecake for dessert from the fancypants local Italian eatery) and then we did a "fund the need" auction. Our back patio has really fallen on hard times in the last six months and we just got a quote for $7500 to fix it. I did a little spiel about the history and use of the building and how we want it to last another 100 years, so we really needed people to help fund this project. And people donated so much money. And then! THEN! There's a generous couple in our town who are going to match whatever everybody else donated. Can you even imagine?
We followed this with dancing upstairs. This is the same room where we do our lecture series, but look how amazing it looks for this purpose, too! The band was Marcy and The Highlights and they were amazing. If you need a band to encourage dancing in the Madison area, hit them up. They were brilliant.
I was mostly doing dishes during the dancing portion, but I did dance to a couple of tunes and had such a great time.
Here's to a lovely weekend with lovely people.
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Have you ever been to a fund the need auction? When's the last time you were able to go dancing?
This looks lovely! What a great venue. I am a horrible dancer and only dance in my kitchen with my kids or husband and even then...I'm not a fan.
ReplyDeleteI've done some silent auctions before, but that's it!
Oh, the fund the need was so much fun. People were just raising their paddles to fund different projects and it was AMAZING. It was exhilarating, honestly.
DeleteI know you're looking to transitioning out of the community center position, NGS--but your affection for the objectives and physical space of the center are obvious! The event sounds like an absolute delight and triumph! Congrats!!
ReplyDeleteOh, I love the place and I'll still be an active volunteer there. That won't change. It's such a wonderful place.
DeleteWhat an event. Congrats on the success.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. It buys us some time while we're in a transitioning time.
DeleteHahahahaha. Dancing? Me? My idea of the perfect weekend is lots of reading and football time. I need my weekends to be restful, otherwise I feel frazzled on Monday morning. But, this event does look really lovely. It sounds like it went really well and I hope you got the money to fix the patio!
ReplyDeleteNice guest post on Elisabeth's blog today : )
Oh, the dancing was so lovely. I wish I could find someplace to dance every weekend. LOL. We funded the patio and then plenty more!
DeleteI love how those spaces transform too! And how wonderful you got so many donations and that couple is going to match. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteI also am not someone who thrives on super busy weekends. I know people who pack their schedules too and that is NOT for me, lol.
I have never been to an auction like that! Hmm, and the last time I was dancing... must have been at a wedding in 2019?
Ha! You're one of the people I was thinking about who always have full weekends! Your schedule seems insane to me!
DeleteI'm glad your event went off so well. It's a real juggling feat to get all the pieces to come together for a successful event, especially a fundraiser. I used to work with my brother to put on big charity softball tournaments, so I get it.
ReplyDeleteThat space is great--the floor alone is beautiful!
It is a BEAUTIFUL old building. If you're ever in southeastern Wisconsin, hit me up. I'll get you a tour of the building!
DeleteHooray! What a great result of all your planning and preparation! So very glad you had a good turnout and fundraising success!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I much prefer to be a homebody on the weekends. Yesterday I did get to stay home most of the day, which was great. PJs all day!!!
PJs all day is the dream!!
DeleteIt sounds like an exhausting yet rewarding evening!
ReplyDeleteLast year, I went to the opera gala, which feels sort of like work because it was held after one of our shows. There was dancing, though the band was sooooo loud, so I just hung out where all the food was and ate lots of fancy tiny things. Fancy tiny things seems to be the food theme of these events. Though there was an entire 8 foot table covered with cheese. That was pretty awesome.
We didn't even do fancy tiny things! We served dinner and dessert. There was wine, beer, and sparkly water for beverages. No hors d'oeuvres at all.
DeleteBut I'll be honest that I do like the sound of a table covered in cheese.
Yay for a successful event-- it looks SO FUN!!
ReplyDeleteIt was a blast. I had a wonderful time, even though I did spend a good chunk of time doing the dishes.
DeleteI'm glad you had a successful event! I have been to fundraisers but nothing that was funding a specific need. That is probably more motivating than a general fundraiser. And how kind of a couple to match what was raised! I haven't been dancing in so long unless you count informal dance parties with the boys. Yesterday when I went to get Paul from his room for swimming lessons, he was playing ABC mouse and there was a video about 90s music/dancing style. He was trying to copy the person on the video. It was very very cute.
ReplyDeletePeople were SO excited about the exact project they were donating to. They asked lots of questions about the projects and I can see how it is a really good fundraising model.
DeleteHey, dance parties with the boys absolutely count! Dancing is dancing!
What a great evening! How fun is that. I love things like this, and I love dancing too. It's been a while though.
ReplyDeleteI find there are fewer and fewer events where I get to dance. That's a real bummer. LOL. On the other hand, I do like to spend the evening at home.
DeleteOh, what a beautiful location, I'm glad the fundraiser went so well! I've never heard of a 'fund the need' fundraiser, but I love it.
ReplyDeleteIt was so much fun. I hope we do this fundraiser semi-regularly (every five years?)!
DeleteIt sounds like a lovely event, but yeah, I am definitely not one of the "busy" people on the weekends. I am very comfortable at home.
ReplyDeleteIt was really fun and I hope everyone had a good time - maybe even a better time than if they'd stayed home in their pajamas.
DeleteWhat a great success. But it is always lots of work to pull it all together. Even better when it turns out great.
ReplyDeleteI also like my weekends low key with reading and writing. Every once in awhile I like some adventure.
It was a great success and I'm happy we pulled it off, despite my lack of time to relax on the weekend.
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