Less than a week prior to our 6thAnnual Summer Fun event we were debating whether to cancel. With only a few people signed up we worried that despite our fabulous auction prizes we might not have anyone to buy them.
Bidding on wonderful auction items!
Competing with beautiful weather, last minute camping trips and out of town plans, we made the executive decision to go ahead and hope that our months of preparation would pay off for our students in Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, and Guatemala.
And with $7600 raised, we think we made the right decision!
Apparently this is a last minute culture. Not only do people RSVP only days prior (if
at all) but auction donations also poured in at the final hour. We scrambled to write bid sheets for dozens of generous last minute donations including a basket of fresh vegetables from someone’s local garden!
A great part of our success can be attributed to Wesjet for their donation of 2 tickets to anywhere they fly. We raffled these off and the lucky winner told us she is soon to be married and will use the tickets for her honeymoon!
Another big contributor, Fresh Kitchen http://www.freshkitchen.ca/, donated the
fabulous food including dips to die for.
And to go with the food, many kids (and a few adults) enjoyed a lemonade slushie made in a pedal powered blender. Heather Hendrie of Powered by the People brought her blender bike and taught us how to use our own energy, via pedalling, to blend a refreshing drink. If you are really ambitious you could actually power your whole event including the band. Check it out….http://www.poweredbythepeople.ca/.
We also enjoyed the beautiful voice of singer Trish Evans http://triciaevans.com/ who not only sang but helped make announcements and kept the auction bidding going.
For the kids we had crafts, face painting and balloon artistry by Art Star Creations. The face painting was so intricate and detailed – truly little works of art – that even my 14 year old had hers done.
Finally, a general massive THANK YOU to the volunteers, all the donors and most of all the people who came out to the event and generously purchased and donated so that our HYTES kids can continue another year in school and make a difference in their communities, countries and the world.
Take a few minutes to watch these videos of some of our exceptional students in Africa: Part 1 http://youtu.be/wFC1sJ1r4_0
Part 2 http://youtu.be/1Vl3htaNV7s
By Dawn O’Connor HYTES Secretary
