Back in February, Eli Rodriguez offered Tenochtitlan as a place for our Second Annual Benefit.
The food is great!
Anyway, this took a great deal of work off of me and my helper. Eli took care of the food and drinks while I worried about advertising, advanced sales, printing and raffle gifts. Easy. Or so I thought.
Becki couldn't help this year. Because of school and work, she is over extended. So I asked Grace Diaz to take her place. That worked for a while until I took ill, and couldn't get out. I was terrified to say the least, that I would never get done in time. That's when Candace Carr stepped in. She asked what she could do. I asked if she could sell advanced tickets, to which she agreed. Then I explained my situation to her and asked if she'd keep her eyes open for raffle gifts. As I said in an earlier post, she didn't bring in the most, just the best.
Then Peggy Flood contacted me. She and sister, Mary O'Brien thought they could pull together about 15 more. And, thankfully, they did. Before we were finished, we had people seeking us out. Monica Iversen called to ask if I would like a gift certificate. Kim Bieker dropped off a DVD player at Carr Gardens. Both the Cleary Girls Candles and Metro South sent gifts Candy's way. We even had gifts dropped off during the benefit. To my surprise, Marcia Murtagh, who I graduated with in 1973, dropped off a bottle of vodka from Mid-Oak Distillery, Inc.
We were cold that day as we were given the patio to set up, but it was sunny, and Eli lit fires in his pottery fire pits. It went over well. It was crowded and everyone seemed to have a good time.
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| Nephew David and great niece Addyson |
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| Georgene |
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| Grace |
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| I don't know who the people are in this shot, but I used this photo to show how many raffle gifts we had. All those red cups represented on gift. |
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| Peggy, Lucie, someone and Marie |
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| Alex Francois and Tommy Gerez |
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| Rene |
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| Duke and Jimmy |
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| Marsha, Patty and Letty |
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| Kim and I |
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| Ed |
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| Angelina |
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| I don't know who this little one is, but the smile is award winning! Apparently Mom dropped a ticket in the cup representing the pinata as the little one requested. Through out the entire day, she kept checking to see how many more tickets were there. She was so happy to win! |
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| Debbie and Gloria |
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| Eric. Last year his Mom won a piece of glass. When she learned that this year Lucie donated more, she sent Eric with money to spend on tickets for glass only. Out of three, he won two. |
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| Clyde |
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| Alex, Tommy and Rene |
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| Becki |
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| Gerry, me and Kim |
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| Jon, Ed, Becki and I |
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| My brother, Mike and I |
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| Jon and my niece Kelly |
A very special thank you to Lenore Lallo who took on all the responsibilities for printing. To the Blue Island FORUM for advertising in two issues. To my wonderful helpers, Candace Carr, Peggy Flood, Mary O'Brien, and Grace Diaz. I don't know what would have happened without your intervention at the most critical time. To Deputy Chief Mike Cornell and his help in selling tickets. To the City of Blue Island, for their participation, and their backing. To Eli Rodriguez and the staff at Tenochtitlan for their wonderful service and the wonderful food and drink we received. A special thank you to Tommy Gerez and Alex Francois for entertaining us. And thank you to the following for helping us with raffle gifts: Cleary Girls Candles, Metro South, Carr Gardens, Aztec, Inc., Kim Bieker, Joseph's Restaurant and Bar; Iversen's Bakery, B.I. McDonalds; Flower's by Cathe; Double Play Lounge; Supermercado Imelda; Brown's Fried Chicken; Lucie O'Connor; Sam Tuman; Debbie Coyle; Jeben's Hardware; Tenochtitlan; Mid-Oak Distillery, Inc. and Maria Murtagh. And to Gerry Runge who brought me mugs and gift certificates to Tower Car Wash. Finally, thank you to my kids, Ed, Jon and Becki, to Chris Rondinella, Gloria Zaper, Grace Diaz and Angelina Kelly, who kept everything moving throughout benefit day. A special thanks to Kathy Kuehner and Strivevent Lutheran.
