Tonight was the Gala. We only brought Simeon and Corrine with us, because we knew it would be a very formal event and would be a long night. Corrine got a new pinkish/purplish sparkly dress and Simeon wore his new suit, that we order the week before we knew we were speaking here.
We were asked to talk about our experiences at The Heart Connection Camp, and why this camp is so important to us. It was decided that I would be the family spokeswoman. Simeon did talk about "shooting a gun at camp and how mom would NEVER let him do that at home!" I was surprised how comfortable I was once I started talking. This camp is so close to our hearts. The kids LOVE going to camp, so talking about it was so easy for me.
The 1st auction item (which was just after we spoke) was camperships to The Heart Connection camps. Each campership was $300. They had a goal of selling 130 camperships, because when they hit this goal, then an oncologist was going to donate 25 camperships. They started auctioning the camperships off and about 100 went fairly quickly, then things stalled. Simeon went up and asked that people please support the kids and help them go to camp. That did it! The last camperships were bought and the oncologist donated 25, bring the total to 155 camperships at a total of $46,000. Half of this money goes to camp and half goes to college scholarships.
When someone bought a campership they received a red balloon. Someone handed Simeon a balloon, and Corrine got a little jealous. A lady helping handing out the balloons saw this and told Corrine she'd get her a balloon too.
The auction was over and all the camperships were bought. Then all of the sudden a HUGE group of balloons came to our table. It was 25 balloons for the doctor who bought the 25 camperships, but instead of going to him, they were given to Corrine!!
When we sat down we started talking with the people at the table. A while later the man next to me was talking with an organizer of the event and they thanked him for helping out and buying the 25 camperships. I had no idea the person I had been sitting next to and talking to was the incredibly generous doctor who was helping so many kids go to camp. They had put us next to each other on purpose so we could meet each other. I was humbled by his humbleness. He didn't want people to know what he had donated. He just wanted to help the kids. After the auction was over Simeon was so sweet and went up and thanked him.
Pat McGraff (who owns a couple of car dealerships in Cedar Rapids) bought 15 camperships. After the auction we went over and thanked him for purchasing so many camperships. He was so nice and really wanted to help.
Simeon and Corrine got to draw the raffle prize winners. Simeon drew for the TV and year massage, and Corrine drew for the $1,00 visa gift card. Then later on they had a raffle for a diamond. They tried to sell 100 raffle tickets for the diamond, but only 40 sold. They had all the people who bought a raffle ticket come up. They picked a box and had to open them all at the same time. After all the people came up, there were still 10 boxes left on the table uncollected. Because of the uncollected boxes all the names were put into a bowl and Corrine got to pick the winner of the diamond. She made a ladies night!!
It was such a neat night of meeting so many generous people who wanted to help kids and adults with cancer and their families. We were trying to leave and it took over half hour to get out the door because we kept getting stopped and talked to. By the time we left in was 11:00pm and both the kids were tired.
Corrine was trying so hard to convince us to let her bring home all 25 balloons. In the end they both were able to bring home 2 balloons.
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