VIP

June 9th is the date we have set aside for our VIP event. Mike at Bella Notte has once again generously offered up his restaurant to host this event. Invitations will be going out this week by email.

This event is a quick thank you to our community sponsors and in kind donors. We will also have a chance to introduce next year's charity, Ontario Shores Foundation. Hopefully the yummy foods at Bella Notte will inspire some networking and give everyone a chance to meet others who are interested in making our community a better place.

Friendship weekend

What an amazing planning weekend. Who cares if we didn't plan much, we had a great time.

We did manage to clear up the bare essentials but nothing in comparison to Kira's agenda. So we will be having one more short meeting before our summer hiatus. No biggie!

We learned a lot about each other though. There were a lot of laughs, a few tears and an unbelievable amount of yummy food. I think I had a food hangover on Monday!

On the way home, Dana shared with me her hopes for Hearts of Durham when it first started. She feels overwhelmed at the friendships that have developed and the support systems that we have made for each other. She had really hoped that Hearts of Durham would be able to continue to grow and support the community but never thought about the personal gains that benefit us. To me that's just good karma! You get what you give.

Two Days to go

Two more days until we leave for our planning weekend! So excited. This is Nicole’s first girls weekend so we need to make it pretty memorable. Of course, Sian has already cracked the whip and has set her expectations pretty high. She wants to do an in-depth review of each event and turn the discussion into a map to proceed with next year’s events. She gave us homework! I am pretty sure she is going to be bringing an agenda. The rest of us are banking on food and drink as the agenda for the weekend with some light discussion about time gone by and what lies ahead. I think Sian might be shocked to find out that besides herself and Kelli, the rest of us actually sleep!

Call to Action

It’s hard to believe another year of fundraising has gone by. Five years of hard work and so much to show for it!

This year’s Bee’s Knees Benefit was a great success. $86,409 raised for Feed the Need in Durham. We had to work hard for that number this year. Like every other business and organization, the Hearts girls certainly felt the economic pinch this year. When business is good, our community supporters are more than generous, but when times get tough everyone has to put their priorities in order. We thank this year’s sponsors, donors and guests for contributing to the success of this event. We also recognize that not everyone was able to be a part of this year and there is a need to be frugal in hard times. We hope that we can all move forward into more prosperous times, together as a community.

A recent article in the Globe and Mail discussed the difficulties that non-profits and charities are experiencing this year. The economic downturn has resulted in job loss within these organizations and in some cases, doors closing altogether. Foundations and donors are recognizing that they do not have the bandwidth to keep up with the amount of support that was happening five years ago. For Hearts of Durham this is a call to action. Now, more than ever, our efforts are needed in our community.

So the planning begins…

2010/2011 – Charity of Choice is Ontario Shores.

The Hearts Girls are having our planning weekend in the near future. This is where we hope to hash out the events of the year ahead and look constructively at our past years to see what we can improve upon and what we absolutely loved. It is also a time for us to pat ourselves on the backs and celebrate our great successes. We will definitely be up for a few late nights and a bit of non-prohibition fun! and some hard work, of course.

The Bee's Knees

The Down Low on the Bee’s Knees - The cocktail reception was a great start to the evening. The New Threads gave the event that jazzy 20’s feel that we were looking for. Personally, I thought the Bee’s Knees cocktail was yummy and it was pretty cool drinking out of a teacup. The marketplace was a perfect idea and it gave those who didn’t dress up the opportunity to get into the spirit of the evening. I think the volunteers did a great job at the marketplace and at the reception tables. I had a good time watching the guests show up in costume. Phenomenal job by some! Photos were taken and even though I didn’t get a chance to sit down for a photo by Heather, I did see the final results and they looked fantastic!

Wasn’t the room outstanding? Annie Lane put together a great décor package including the chair covers, centerpieces and pillars at the front of the room. Then there were the swag bags and the purse hooks for all the ladies, that was a bonus. The swag was pretty impressive this year. I’ve already used up a lot of my coupons and the edible stuff that was in there.

Neil Crone was exceptional, as he always is! He’s a pretty funny guy and his two cronies, Dan and Rob, were darn realistic as gangsters. Kudos goes to my hubby, playing the Irish/Scottish cop who stormed in for the raid. That man should be in pictures…don’t you think, Neil?? Oh, and his sidekick was pretty menacing looking too! Good job Rick! The Sutton Big Money Moment was a valuable entertainment piece.

Speaking of entertainment, Matthew always does a bang up job with his DJ service providing us with great dancing tunes to finish off our evening but also those timely zingers that we love! And the sirens worked this year! What about the Big Easy Seven? Dana, you get a pat on the back for that decision. They were incredible and I loved it when they got up and walked through the room playing their instruments. Felt completely interactive and fun! I didn’t get to see much of the Bee’s Knees dancers but from what I did see, they certainly looked like they knew what they were doing. Good job for those who got up to learn a few steps with them. Nothing like being in the spotlight in front of 370 people! Pure bravery!

Dinner was delicious and I didn’t even get to sit and really enjoy it. I heard a number of positive comments about the meal. Someone said they thought the appetizer was the main course it was so filling and another said that it was better than the dinner they had out at a restaurant the previous night. All in all, I think the soup was my favorite part, but I didn’t get to finish because we had moved onto the balloon pop event.

The Hearts girls call the balloon pops their signature event. It is definitely a fun time and a little chaotic. I have seen this type of on-site fundraiser at other events but not one where everyone wins a prize. My hubby got a great prize this year and he didn’t even win the grand prize!

And then there were more prizes! I have to mention the candy girls. They looked authentic and very lovely in their outfits and carrying the trays of candy sticks. Good job ladies. They sold all of the tickets for the evenings raffle which was a great relief to the Hearts girls. You just can’t do everything! The raffle prize was a plasma TV with fixin’s. We also gave out prizes for The Big Hearts raffle from a few weeks earlier. The three top prize winners were given 2 tickets to the benefit and armed with the knowledge that they had won a prize. The $1000 VISA gift card, the plasma TV and sound system, and the trip (Disney for four) were awarded to our lucky VIP guests.

Live Auction was great and I still can’t get over the auction packages that came together. We had a real live auctioneer on hand at one of our guest tables but he suddenly came down with laryngitis, hmmm…anyway his buddy filled in and did a great job. The silent auction also was a hit. A nice variety of items from jewellery to cakes to furniture were sold. The Corona muskoka chair seemed to be THE item of the evening but I had my eye on some other items. Unfortunately I was not successful in winning my coffee maker or the bike, but there’s always next year I guess.

The cheque presentation was met with thunderous applause and I was grateful to present it this year. I didn’t actually get past the 86 thousand point before the applause started but I’m glad that everyone was so proud of the evening. I was slightly nervous about making my minute long speech but even more nervous about swinging that big cheque around and not getting marker on my dress! I think I did a decent job and no marks on the dress. Phew…

Thanks to all!

S.

A New Adventure

I think it's about time that Hearts of Durham have a blog.

Dana and I had both come to the idea/decision that a blog would be a good thing for Hearts around the same time. Unfortunately, the time was fairly close to our upcoming annual benefit and we decided that we would put it off for a bit.

Well it has been three weeks since the Bee's Knees Benefit and it seems like as good a time as any to start moving forward.

With a group of nine I am hoping that everyone will be able to contribute at least once but my sense is that my opinions and stories will be most common. I will do my best to give an overall view of what is happening with the Hearts Girls. I would love to see some feedback and suggestions.

So, here we go...

Sherry