We had a wine tasting at Classic Wines on April 15th to raise money for TSC. It went awesome!!!!! I worked so hard to get everything planned and all the auction items together. We had a brand new Electrolux Wine Cooler and a Steve Penley painting that were both donated to us that we got to auction. We also auctioned tons of awesome lake stuff like teeth whitening with Scott Roberts, rounds of golf, microdermabraisons, chiropractic etc.... Richard and Kathy Matthews and Alice Lee at Classic Wines arranged for 4 wine vendors to come to the tasting and donate wine for free. We had a ton of food that I made and Heather at Spillin the Beans made a nice assortment of appetizers.
The night went better than I ever could have imagined. The whole time I was preparing I was constantly thinking "I hope people show up" and " I hope after all this work we actually raise some money for research". Well, I have to say that I was BLOWN AWAY by all the support we received. Absolutely blown away. We have the most amazing friends at the lake. Everyone we knew came and alot of people we did not know came as well. People were so generous. We had one man who came in connected to and oxygen tank and told us he had seen our flyer and went home and read every word of my blog. He drove all the way from the other side of town just to make a donation. He did not drink wine and only took a very small plate of food for he and his wife to share. It was so touching.
One very young girl who works at the coffee shop came up to me one day and said "I do not have much money, but I have a little baby and I cannot imagine what you are going through and I want to give what I can." She handed me all the money she had made in tips that day. I told her she did not have to do that and she insisted that she wanted to. I thanked her and then went to the car and bawled. People amaze me at how generous they are. People that have nothing give always reach from the bottom of their hearts just to give something. It is just so touching to see how supportive our community is.
The wine tasting went very well and was so much fun. We had over 130 people come and we all squeezed nicely into Richard's wine tasting room. The wine was top notch and everybody had a great time. At the end of the night, after our auctions. we had raised over $16,000!!!! I could not believe it! I was hoping for at least $5,000 because the Penley painting was one of a kind and worth at least $10,000. (He painted it just for our event!!! He is such a great guy!!) I would have been thrilled with $10,000, but we went above and beyond that! I was so happy!!! I was exhausted when it was over, but I was very happy! If we still lived in Atlanta there is no way we would have the love and support we get at the lake from all our friends. We are so blessed.
I am looking forward to making this an annual event and make it even bigger next year. I had a lot of men ask me if we had ANY beer that night, so next year I am going to make it a Beer and Wine festival!!! That way everybody is happy!
I cannot thank enough all the people who came and donated money or auction items. I will never forget what people have done for us. It means the world to Ben and me and hopefully it will change the world for Kallan.
If you could not make it, but would like to donate you still can.. Go to www.firstgiving.com and in the search field type in Angie Windham. It will take you to our fundraising page. I thank you all for your love and friendship.
