Well this week has certainly been busy too! I thought once the gala was over I’d have some down time…guess I mistaken.
The Amy Biehl Annual Fundraising Gala Dinner went off fantastically! We had over 300 high profile guests attend the magical evening. Famous performers: Michael Mol, Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Mtika, Aviva Pelham, Sans of Time the band, and SA’s Got Talent winner, James Bhemgee all graced our giant stage to give our audience of consulate generals (USA, France and Romania) and managing directors of large corporations (Reeds Auto Group, Clicks, Woolworths, Chevron, Sanlam, and Old Mutual to name a few) a night to remember!
Our theme this year was Gold of Africa so everything from the table décor to carpet on the floor to gift bags was gold. In order to not be too over the top, the accent color was black---black and gold! Mizzou colors!! I was more than excited to help plan this event and even wore my black and gold apparel to several of the meetings (maybe that was a bit much, but oh well).
The guests arrived at 7pm and mingled around the foyer where we had 62 different silent auction items displayed. As they sipped their champagne and Appletiser, we encouraged them to bid on their favorite hotels, bakeries, restaurants, photographers, and local artists—and of course, always reminding them that the money goes to the children. As soon as the bell tolled 7.30, the grand doors opened and our highly talented marimba kids began their upbeat performance to welcome the guests to take their seats in the ballroom. (Ballroom pictured below)
I spent the rest of the evening running around making sure things were in order and people were in the right spot at the right time so I didn’t see much of the performances, but we received good reviews from our audience so I guess it went well! Just after our guests dined on eight hour lamb shoulder with lemon thyme, potato anna, vegetable mélange and merlot jus they were asked to open their hearts and pocketbooks for our live auction. We had so many great prizes including a diamond and ruby ring valued at R98 000, a luxury cruise on the Zambezi River, Safari getaways by Victoria Falls, and a 10-day family vacation for 4 through 4 cities in Italy! I was in charge of the spotters and bid sheets so this crazy fast and hectic 30 minutes kept me on my feet!
Dessert and dancing followed the live auction and guests lingered around the place until just after midnight. In between all the eating and donations, we had kids from our programs perform different numbers (traditional, kwaito, gumboot and hip hop dancing, brass and strings, the choir, recorders, and the marimbas).
After breaking down the evening, closing the silent auction bids and helping guests redeem their prizes and cleaning up the room I suddenly realized that how tired I was. Nevermind the exhaustion, it was time to celebrate! Maike and I made our way home for some tea and cookie making before finally heading to bed.
After tallying up the ticket sales (R1000 per person!), live auction, silent auction, pledges, and spontaneous donations for the evening, we made quite a sum! Factor in our expenses and grand total came to a whopping R500,000 ($70,500)!!!!! SUCCESS!!!!!!
Throughout the whole process—the late nights, the early mornings, the countless number of runs to the coffee shop and Eastern Foods Bazaar for mango lassis to keep motivated, the hours spent in one excel spreadsheet, the random sentances uttered by the fried brain cells of Ilchen and myself and the day of the event festivities—I lived off the excitement of the event. I loved event planning! Although it was stressful at moments, working towards one big event to raise money for our programs, to give township kids a better chance at life and keep them off the streets was certainly something I was passionate about. Maybe I will put event planner in my next job criteria…..
All in all, the Amy Biehl Gala Event was a hit and tomorrow I will go on a road trip up the West Coast and just chill on the rocky beaches to relax and enjoy the sunshine J
Note: Sorry there aren’t more pictures, I was so busy running around I didn’t have time to take any L Once I get some from the office, I will post them.
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