I'm a Giver

This weekend turned out to be something of a charitable weekend for me. Wasn’t planned this way… well, the events were planned, but I never looked at the calendar close enough to see how it fell together. Makes for a warm fuzzy inside.

Friday night was the Make-A-Wish Big Wish Gala. I’ve been volunteering at this event for a few years now, and I love it! Just like I love Make-A-Wish! The Gala is always something spectacular and it grows every year – about 800 people were in attendance this year. Last year, we raised over $500k, and I’m sure this year, we raised even more. There was one ‘anonymous’ donation of $150,000 (I say it like that because the guy stood up and donated it). Very few people knew about that coming, so it got a lot of applause. They did a few things differently, on the operating side of it this year, so it made for more down time for the volunteers, believe it or not. But that made it possible for us to actually enjoy part of the program, which was nice for a change. Always cool to hear the stories.

Saturday morning was the SGK Race for the Cure. I’ve been doing this for many years, now, but it’s never fallen on the morning after the Gala. So it was a late night, followed by an early morning. But, since I wasn’t partaking in the drinking side of the Gala (since I was volunteering at it), it really wasn’t that big of a deal. It was the perfect morning for the event this year, too – the past few years have been cold and/or rainy. I think the weather helped the crowd turnout, too, though we still haven’t gotten back to the peak we were at a few years back (before the ‘controversial’ remark the CEO made about something). But I still support it because of what the root cause is – people say things, but that’s their right. This nation has become too PC sensitive. But that’s a rant for another day.

So all in all, a good weekend to this point. It’s just a rainy day, today… but as much as I want to be lazy, I can’t seem to get to my lazy state. Oh well. I still consider it a good weekend.