A Night of Hope

Would people come? That is the question that was on all of our minds as the night of our big fundraiser approached. The Rally NW team had many individual fundraisers planned; however, this was the big one. “A Night of Hope” involved almost 30 of our athletes, who canvassed more than 250 local businesses for donations of services and/or goods. The response from those businesses had been outstanding and we had so many great items. Ticket sales had been slow, however, and we were all very worried if there would be people at our event to buy all of those great items…

The event was held at the Talon Grill at the Hawks Prarie Golf Club in Lacey. Contrary to popular opinion, Western Washington can and does have beautiful weather. However, it appeared this day would not be one of them. But, just as our event got started the weather cleared up and it turned out to be a great evening.

Our attendees started the night out by grabbing the drink of their choice, munching on appetizers and strolling around looking at all the great items we had up for bidding. We had a short introduction to our event by the mayor of Olympia, Doug Mah.

This was followed up by a great video put together by Coach Jason. Next we had Rally Kid Rhema’s mom, Kirsten, who gave a touching speech on how Childhood Cancer has affected her family (for those who have not yet read Kirsten’s blog, please take the time to read it). Kirsten is a talented writer and speaker, and speaks from the heart. Later in the evening, a live auction was led by Coach Jason. Our MC and photographer for the evening was the husband/wife combo of Chris and Dena Curtis. They did an outstanding job for us and helped make the evening a great success.

By the way, people did come! We had an outstanding turnout with approximately 160 people. Those that attended had a great time and with their support we raised over $14,000! A big thanks to Kathi, Lani, and too many others to list that made the event such a success.
This event further solidified my belief that if you can get people’s attention on the need for funding and awareness for childhood cancer, they will step up and help. I feel this event did just that!!!

Thanks for reading,
Ron