Wednesday 27 March 2013

Our Men

One of the very important groups we sometimes forget to thank are our men.  I understand that not every man wants to spend a Friday and Saturday night and a Sunday morning in a room full of yelling and screaming women.  (And that is just the set up!) 

But they do.  Year after year our men help with set up, take down, and everything in between.  Some stay home with the kids so the wives can be there.  Everyone pulls together and plays a role in putting together this great night. 

And then we have our volunteers.  Thirty men this year wanting to help.  We auctioned off 12 of them for 2570 dollars I might add, one sold liquor tickets, four worked the bar, six carried items around, three auctioneers, and four that filled in whenever they were needed, whenever they could.  We could not put on this event without the support of the volunteers. 

And the long term volunteers especially.  Bob Schaeffer and Mike Fries who have been at the auction every year.  Troy Douglas who has auctioned for us for ten years.  Alyen Arther who has been at most of the auctions, even giving it the old college try to auction for us the very first year.  Rick Slaferek who supports us with amazing sponsorship, volunteering and ideas (like auctioning off next years table at the front.)  The list simply goes on and on.

A couple of volunteers that happen not to be men, Sue Fricker and Crystal Cook, have also been involved in one way or another for many years.  And if I recall correctly, the original auction idea came from Sue. 

So you see, we could do none of this on our own.  We appreciate each and every volunteer.  Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us with blood, sweat and tears this year.  We would not want to do any of this without you. 

Thanks for reading!

Monday 25 March 2013

The days after

So it is the days following the auction.  I slept like a baby last night.  Like a hung over stuffed with left over cheesecake and spinach dip baby. 
 
We raised a record, 25,000 dollars on Saturday night.  We are still amazed at how much we raised on our man auction.  $2570, just from auctioning off 12 men.  Our liquor sales were through the roof. We had a great auction and silent auction. 
 
We are incredibly amazed at the support we have received. 
Congratulations to our Diamond Balloon Pop winner! Wanda DeJong won a  $500 gift certificate to Fire & Ice in Regina!
 
Our theme for the night was 1980's we dressed up, tried to remember how to back comb our hair and had a great time.  Thanks to the town of Qu'Appelle for hosting the best party of the year once again.  Here are some fantastic pictures of our evening. 
 
 
Some of our items during set up on Friday night.

Before shaving Ryan's head.  He raised almost 1500 dollars for us! 

After Ryan's head shaving.  An amazing example of what our fantastic supporters will do for us! 
 
Our guys got right into the action!

Male waiters and a free massage.

Monday 18 March 2013

More Blessed!

 
Words to live by!
 
If you have ever wondered how to improve your life, try this. 
Dr. Phil says "If you don't have what you want, then you better start wanting what you have."
Simply put, enjoy the life you have and quit wanting more. 
 
Forever Friends deals with people every day that would love to have a simple moment of their health back.  Young women that will never see their kids next report card let alone walk down the isle. 
 
This doesn't mean you can't have a bad day.  Sometimes things happen that really suck. 
No softening of the words required, just suck. 
 
Please just try to remember at the end of everyday to be grateful for the first world frustrations that fill our lives.  Caught in traffic in your 40,000 dollar car, burned one of the steaks for supper, your healthy kid brought home a B in Math, ask yourself "Really, Seriously..."  and be grateful. 
 
The auction is in just a few days.  I can't wait.  See you all soon!
 
 

Friday 15 March 2013

Sequestered

So here I am, in Humbolt.  Not that Humbolt is bad.  It seems like a great little town.  A&W, IGA, Timmies and more.  Everything we need right?  I just feel very far away. 

It took about 3 1/2 hours to get here because the roads are pretty poor.  Luckily though I don't have to move until March 23 now.  I don't mind that much, looking at the weather outside.  When I am done I will write a test on Saturday and come home right after and then head to the auction.  After this week I should be done my learnin' for a while. 

The ladies of FFOH are in full swing.  Donation items have to be in tomorrow and will be sorted out on Monday night.  Items are being dropped off in rapid fire succession.  A really cool plant stand from Indian Head Agencies, a purse from Tru-Fit Denture, Inverness Consulting, some awesome pottery, Blairs, Saskmade Market Place, a cool gift basket from The Pink Tree, Thee Lingere Shoppee, Co-op Refineries, Rider jersey, Matt Inglis, the Geis family, and the list goes on and on.  As usual, an astounding display from our community.  There will be a whirlwind of activity for the whole group this week. 

Strange things happen as our group reaches further out.  Things like Richie Brothers reaching out to help auctioneer.  Our long time auctioneer, Troy Douglas, graciously stepped up and agreed to share the huge job of auctioning off our items.  This is the amazing thing.  People are coming out to offer to help us.  This is truly when our long time supporters shine through.  The people who truly care about FFOH are the ones that put themselves aside and recognize the outside help and work with it. You really see the true side of great people in situations like this.  So Troy, my hat is off to you yet again.  Ten years of amazing support and the graciousness and help extends even further.  We cannot thank you enough. 

We have great guys to auction off this year.  We can't wait to see how the man servents will go this year, or as Troy calls them the man-whores.  Again we have had people contacting us to volunteer.

It's all very cool.

And because I am very blessed through my work with FFOH, awesome things happen to me.  Recently, this became very apparent.  I was very humbled to find out that friends of FFOH, folks that we met through an applicant, Garry and Pam Frigon from Lisa B Originals, have nominated me for a YWCA Woman of Distinction Award in Community Leadership & Enhancement category.
I am very grateful for this nomination.  I won't lie, winning would be super cool, but just that fact that people thought enough of me to nominate me, write and collect the letters of support, and stand behind me, takes my breath away.  

You all know I am not a real emotional sort but reading all of the letters from people that I thought would hardly even remember me, let alone care enough to write a letter, put a huge lump in my throat.  Not to mention the people that I know well that sent in a letter without me knowing a thing. 

I will keep you posted on how it works out but for now, know that I can not keep count of my blessings.  Thank you all. 

 


 

Sunday 3 March 2013

Coming together

Well the auction seems to be coming together in the traditional awesome way. 

We tried a new system for ticket sales that went over very well.  We had a line up outside the 50+ Club starting at 9:30.  That was amazing to see.  Our first sale was for 20 tickets.  The Pay Pal account worked very well.  I was very nervous about how that would all work together.  But it went very smoothly.  We found a new system that really worked for us. 

We sold 131 tickets in the first 15 minutes.  At the end of the four hours we only had 29 tickets left.  We are down a few more tickets now.  I think we only have 19 left.  I am very happy that we are almost completely done.  It was very easy to get the tickets sold, letters addressed and mailed out in the same few hours.  So much simpler. 

Items are rolling in.  We have some amazing things coming in.  We are grateful for the generosity of people every day.  And as if a reminder of what we do, we have an application waiting for a woman who had exhausted her EI disability and is still taking chemo and radiation.  She will need thousands to keep food on the table until she can return to work in the summer time.  IF she can return to work. 

And there but by the grace of God, go I.