INSPIRE: Oct. 13 Inaugural Fundraising Party sold out
One of the challenging parts of running a non-profit foundation involves the need to be constantly raising money to help execute programs and services intended for the community, and in our case, the spinal cord injury community in Northern California. We've been very blessed to get off to a strong start through our friends and families who came through with a strong contribution during our first year and we are very grateful for that.
We've always known there is no shortage of opportunities to invest in worthy programs and services. The only challenge will always be securing adequate funding and that's why, among our various fundraising strategies, NorCal SCI will be hosting its inaugural fundraising party on Sat., Oct. 13th, a $150 per person event already sold out with nearly 110 guests. Held at Bramble & Bier at Jack Rose Libation House in Los Gatos, the evening's theme is "Inspire: Eat, Drink, and be Giving" and we have developed a four-hour program which we hope will inspire our guests and provide us with an opportunity to raise much-needed funds.
Neither one of us had ever organized an event of this size and importance before but we were fortunate for Nick's good friends and veteran event and fundraising organizers, Caroline and Colin Macnab, who have helped teach us what it takes to run a successful fundraising event. We've been at this for over six months and along the way, we got additional assistance from Julie Struthers, Carl McGrew, Kamal Mehta and Matt Keenan. We're also grateful to our friends, Sue Ellen and Jim Calcagno who introduced us to their friends and Jack Rose owners, Russ Stanley and his wife, Connie, who put together a great package for us to make the evening a reality.
We were also fortunate enough to land as the evening's emcee, Chris Wilder, CEO of Valley Medical Center Foundation. Chris has not only been a huge supporter of ours since day one but is one of the most sought-after personalities when it comes to leading events such as ours. Our guests are sure to enjoy the way Chris will conduct the evening, including the critical auction part which will help raise the vast majority of the funding.
And so, with less than five weeks remaining, we're finalizing our programming as well as securing additional auction items. By the way, if you have items that would be valuable for us to auction off, please consider donating them to us. Contact us at info@norcalsci.org. You may deduct the contribution to the extent allowed by the Internal Revenue Service. We will be reporting on the evening following its conclusion.