Success!

Gala was an amazing success. The week was grueling but we made it. With Sherry out of town on Monday and Tuesday we did some scrambling and found a sitter for Conner Monday and Aunt Glenda came to Garland Tuesday. I worked double duty - went to work at 8 am then came home for dinner and back to work till late and then worked at home pulling 15 hour plus days. Friday I headed to the hotel at 8 am and worked all day - we were behind schedule so Aaron came back to the hotel with me at 8 am Saturday and let me be the first to say he was a trooper and I appreciate his help so much. We cut out about 3 pm to go shower and then it was show time at 4:30 pm.

The decor was amazing - we had wonderful flower centerpieces with african masks and lots of decor to transport you to the Safari. Attendance was down by about 300 guests this year but all you did come where very generous. We had four "adventure" areas - the martini bar, beer pull, wine pull and Neiman Marcus pull. Each purchase entered you into a drawing. At the martini bar you purchase a martini glass for $100 and receive a glass and our engraver would engrave it for you and you had the opportunity to win a $5000 piece of jewelry from Tiffany & Co. At the beer pull you purcahsed a gourmet bottle of beer for $100 and you were entered into a drawing to win a 65" TV and black leather recliner. At the wine pull you purchased a bottle of wine for $100 and were entered into a drawing for a trip to Napa Valley. At the Neiman Marcus area you purchase a box for $200 and in each box an amazing designer gift from Neiman Marcus and a chance to win a $2000 pair of earrings. We didn't sell out at the adventure areas but we were over the top in silent auction. With over 350 silent auction items and 12 live auction items we made a good amount of money. Our premlimary totals for the entire Gala put us at $1,175,000. With all the challeneges we faced we are very gracious to our committed supporters and committee members that made this event a success. I have a few pictures from one of our volunteers and will post more in the coming days!

Now it's time to relax.