Heavy Lifting

So the one fund-raiser I did before the 200 stuffed mushroom one was a music, food, silent auction at the school which I pretty much did myself with not a whole lot of help. I recruited and solicited donations to the auction, stood out front of every parent meeting to try to get the parents to donate. Sent out a mailing. Recruited The Harmony Club, a group of retired studio jazz musicians, two different parents and the school Jazz Band to perform- all for free. Talked the Music parents into doing food and selling it. Got party tables donated. Got the cooking class to donate pies. Tried my damnedist to get people to attend. No one from the school staff actually attended. They handed the keys off to me. I had to hire a Security Guard which was the only expense of the entire evening. I had to smooze with the school custodian to get a piano outside and then back again inside at the end of the evening. Ran the Silent Auction pretty much by myself, except for my dear wife and a few other hardy souls. Luckily there was an unauthorized basketball clinic going on in the gym, so I picked up some business from the passerbys for the auction items and the food. Had some kids to help. The cooking teacher came to check me out, mostly so she could report back to the older parent group that didn't like me cause I talked back and didn't fit in. The reason I had the Friends of LACES blessing, was because a good friend had become President and she told everyone to let me do my thing. I would have preferred some help. It didn't look like a great turnout- the space was large, but I guess we did all right. At the end of the evening, as I was stacking the tables up to be picked up, I was told it looked like we did 10k. We did.