Location: Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile
Date: Saturday, March 01, 2014; 6:30-9:30 pm
I had heard about this event from
Amanda, who had gone to this school and was volunteering for this event
directly with them. When it showed up on
One Brick calendar, I had to get involved and so opted in as EC. The event was being conducted in the downtown
Marriott and was expected to have an attendance of 1,000 people, all gathered
to raise money for the school. So the
question in my mind was why One Brick would get involved in a school fund
raiser. Well, the answer was on the
opportunity description on the website, which read, “The Frances Xavier Warde School is a Catholic elementary school in
downtown Chicago that provides an academically excellent, values-oriented
education to students of all ethnic, religious, cultural and socio-economic
backgrounds in a child-centered urban environment. As a keystone of its diverse
community, The Frances Xavier Warde School provides need-based scholarships to
30 percent of its students. The Frances Xavier Warde School partners with its
families, nurtures faith development for its Catholic students, and engages all
its students to learn about and respect other faith traditions. The Frances
Xavier Warde School uses a rigorous curriculum that enables students to grow,
clarify their values, and develop decision-making skills and a sense of
responsibility for themselves and the world they will inherit.” Well, there
was no doubt that everything they said was absolutely true, considering that I know a graduate of that program and the person that she is.
Being a gala, I was wearing a
suit and dress shoes, meaning the walk in the snow was going to be interesting
as usual. It was the same location as
the ‘Aspire’ gala that I had done
recently and so it wasn’t too difficult for me to make my way to the 7th
floor where they have the grand ballroom. There was already a buzz with the guests having arrived, and Michelle –
the organizer – told me to go to the 6th floor where our team was
assembling. I went there and checked-in
with Tiffany, our EM for the evening, and saw a woman who had volunteered with
me at the ‘Aspire’ event as
well. Some of the other regulars started
arriving, including Gary, who owed me money for a ticket and so handed me a
huge wad of cash. As everyone stared at
this exchange I said, “Let this be a
lesson to all of you on why one should become an EC!”
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| The ballroom |
Michelle came down and said that
there was an immediate need for 4 pairs of volunteers to go and sell bracelets for a game called “Heads or Tails”. In this game, everyone who had bought a
bracelet from the volunteers would be asked to stand up at one point during the
evening’s celebrations. Then the
announcer would go “heads or tails”
and the people would either touch their head or…well, tail. Then the announcer would flip a coin and
depending on how it fell, some would be eliminated and the game would continue till
there was only one person left standing; and who would win $1,000. Hmm, looks like someone had spent a lot of
time thinking about this one. We
assigned 4 pairs to go sell the tickets, while I stayed in the volunteer room
with Tiffany, since people had left their
stuff there and the room did not have a lock.
Plus we were expecting some more volunteers to show up as well. The next task for us was to have a few
volunteers guard their high-valued ‘Silent
Auction” items and so we sent the remaining people there. It seemed like
our immediate task for the evening was complete.
Tiffany said that she could stay
and watch over the room and so I went upstairs to check on our folks. They were spread out amongst the big crowd
and I could see some of them selling the “heads
or tails” bracelets. I saw one of
our volunteers guarding a necklace at the auction tables and I guess this was
what they had been referring to as a high-priced item. I took some pictures and around 7:30 pm the
crowd was ushered into the ballroom for dinner, meaning we could take a
break. As we went back to the volunteer
room, we saw that there was a food spread, though we were told that it was for “their volunteers”. I said that we were with One Brick and as
such one of “their volunteers”, but
it looked like it would take a lot of argument and it wasn’t worth our
time.
We sat in the lobby awaiting
instructions for our next task and it allowed me an opportunity to talk about
One Brick with some of the first time volunteers. Now that the dinner for the guests was done,
our task was to spread out all over the room and point when people
stood up to participate. A same approach
was required with the ‘Live Auction’
to follow, though we weren't given the fancy airline torches like my previous
visit here! While our team spread out, I
went back downstairs to wait with Tiffany and after some time excused myself to
go watch the conclusion of the festivities.
I arrived just in time to see a video on what the school does and it was
impressive to see the effort they put into integrating the various kids from the
community and they truly have a diverse program.
Before commencing with the auction, they had a call to “Fund a Scholar”, which was essentially
asking for donations; similar to something that I had seen at other fund raisers.
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| The rewards of our labor! |
The ‘Live Auction’ began and despite the huge size of the room, I was
impressed by the auctioneer’s ability to cover the entire crowd. The prizes were impressive, including one to visit ‘United Center’ and meet with an
NBA referee. He was in attendance, since
his kids went to the school, and was more than happy to come up to the stage
and “sell” to the crowd. One of my favorite prizes was a lunch with 4
priests, including private dining and conversations, accompanied by 2 bottles
of ‘Dom Perignon’ champagne! This one turned out to be a bidding war between
two gentlemen and went over $8,000. Due
to its popularity they decided to have one more of these so that both of them
could purchase it. Last item was a “Casino Night” at the school and there
were only 125 spots that were open. So
everyone stood up and then as the price kept going up, people backed off, till
there were only 125 left. It was time
for us to leave and I gathered our team, we collected our stuff and
left. A few of us went to ‘Eataly’ for a drink and 'Nutella'! It had been a wonderful event and I had been
wrong about this just being a fund raiser for a school. It was much more than that. It was hope for those kids and families who wouldn't
otherwise have an opportunity to go to a school like this. It was definitely a worthy cause.
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