My sister-in-law, Amber threw a benefit dinner and auction for her sister's family this weekend. Todd and I were part of her crew who helped plan, advertise, and carry it out on Saturday. We spent most of Friday and all of Saturday setting it up and carrying it out, and it was a very rewarding experience.
I wrote about her sister's family, the Holadays in the blog a few weeks ago. Ryan, the father, who graduated from high school with Todd and married Amber's younger sister, Ashley, has a rare cancer. Adrenal Cordical Carcenoma. He's done all they can do to fight it and now has a mountain of medical bills for which we tried to raise money this weekend.
Ashley's brother, Zack, did a benefit golf tournament for him in the morning on Saturday and it was a big success. It raised $14,000. Todd golfed in the tournament with his brothers and friends and had a great time.
Ryan with Zack
The line for the dinner that evening just went on forever- hundreds of people came. It was a delicious ribeye steak dinner. The auction that followed raised so much money- it blew us all away. So many impressive items were donated for it by the community. And people "dug deep" in their pockets as the auctioneer requested so that they could really help this family.
Amber with the auctioneer
This is Ryan, the man of the hour.
Ashley with her mom and youngest son
Amber working hard, as she did all day
for days, if not weeks!
She only had 6 weeks to plan it!
The auctioneer did an excellent job.
The Stice/Lee clan watching the auction
from a beautiful table hand crafted by
a friend of theirs for the auction.
Ashley's dad and her brother, Zack.
The auction was SO unbelievably impressive. People gave so much and some people even gave to Ryan and Ashley what they won and paid for in the auction- including a family vacation in McCall. I'm sure they will cherish the memories of that.
Thanking the crowd. A very
emotional and sweet moment.
Hugging friends and family
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Some friends of ours brought their band
to play music after the auction while people mingled
and paid for their auction items. They did a great job!
Cindy, Tina, and Katrina were in charge of the auction
scribe and collection crew. It got pretty busy
(which is a good thing!) so they had lots of helpers!
After it was over and cleaned up, a group of us
went to Heart 'n Home to use the 10 key and
count the proceeds over a few of Denny's pies.
The dinner and auction made just over $38,000! Combined with the golf tournament, they received over $50,000 that day! Such a success! I am just astounded and so grateful for the good and VERY generous community I live in. I'm also SO impressed with my sister-in-law. She has some SERIOUS talent for leading and coordinating large-scale events!
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