Date Auction Success!

Well, we had an awesome night on Friday with the date auction! We raised a record amount of over $16,000. I am so happy and relieved. Everything went smoothly, we had a great turn out and lots of really positive feedback from people who attended. Our hosts, Karson and Kennedy were absolutely awesome. They were really energetic and did a great job. I invited them to come back last year. They talked about the date auction on-air yesterday morning, they said some very nice things about the event. Karson sent me a clip of their chat and I'm going to have our web host add it to our event page soon. I've uploaded a bunch of photos on our Project Smile Facebook page, so please check them out. We had one bachelor go for $3,200 and another bachelor, an ER doctor, went for $3,500! That was so exciting- I couldn't quite believe what I was watching as the bids got higher and higher. We had a great group of volunteers helping out as well to make sure everything went smoothly. There was one funny thing that happened about 2 hours before event time- I had finished setting up and the staff that a local temp agency had sent to help during the event had just arrived, when all of a sudden the fire alarm went off! My first thought was- I didn't have an anxiety dream about this happening! Everything was fine though, we were back to normal after a brief time. Can you imagine if that had happened during the event!

I've been doing a lot of work wrapping things up from the date auction, I've been following up with getting silent auctions to the winners, I just have about 5 more items that need to be paid for and delivered. I also need to send in the Sofft shoes order forms and return the shoe samples and wrap up a few other things. Sofft was so awesome, they even gave me a pair of shoes- gorgeous purple strappy shoes- they are quite comfy too. Having their support is such a huge part of the event. They gave a pair for Kennedy to wear during the event too.

The major focus now is the anniversary event next week, particularly getting people to the event. Tomorrow, I am going to spend a ton of time following up with everyone that I have invited. I also need more volunteers to help that night. I also need to pick up some other auction items that have been promised. I can't believe it is only 10 days away!

I picked up our 2011 calendars today and they look awesome! I think this is my favorite calendar. The photos really look great. I'm actually really excited for it to be debuted at our event. The printer likes this calendar the best too. I can't believe this is my 7th calendar already- it goes by so amazingly quickly.

Well, I wish I had more energy- I have so much to do. I have been so tired- leading up to the date auction I didn't get a lot of sleep and I feel like I haven't caught up yet. I am now so wrapped up with getting things ready for next week. I also need to start on the bid sheets for the silent auction- we have 100 to do! I hope everything goes well next week too- I feel like we are half way there with the success of the date auction- we just have to get to keep the momentum going for the Anniversary event- that is so important.

I am off to bed, I was going to work, but I think I need to sleep. Last night, I was going to blog, but I fell asleep at 11:30- crazy early for me. Saturday night was kind of funny, I got home and was in bed at 1am, I turned on my bedside lamp because I was going to put on hand lotion- I fell asleep before I even reached for the hand cream. I woke up hours later, wondering why there was such a bright light by my head! Until next time friends... wish my luck- hopefully I will get some good response tomorrow and our guest list will grow!