Aug 17, 2009
Bike MS team rides for their co-worker
CB Riders, a team of co-workers cycling and fundraising for the Bike MS Ride, recently had a successful BBQ fundraiser hosted by the Lake Washington Rowing Club. Their captain, John Alberti, shares his recipe for sucess below:
It must have been Laurie's idea to have a BBQ/ Fund Raiser -- every team needs a spark plug and Laurie is ours. The first thing was to find a date, about 2 months in the future, when most of us could participate. Saturday night, July 25 emerged with a few backup dates.
On Selecting a Venue:
Next order of business was to find a place. Lake Washington Rowing Clubs banquet facility was an early favorite -- several members had been to business conferences there and one (who shall not be named) had celebrated a 50th birthday there, achieving some notoriety when joined by a company of fire fighters summoned when the candles on his cake set off the fire alarm (really!).
On Using Team Member Contacts to Open Doors:
So, with all these fond memories of the place and me being a member of LWRC, I e-mailed the board to see if they might donate or discount the use of the banquet facility for a good cause, feeling a bit sheepish for asking so large a favor. I learned that the space was already taken that night and that Friday nights and Saturdays are prime rental times and not a good time to ask for donated space. To our great joy, however, LWRC did donate the space outright for the next day, Sunday.
On How We Raised Money at our event:
The main engine of this fundraising machine was the auction -- actually two auctions, one live for big stuff and one silent for smaller items. To have a successful auction you need a lot of goods and services that people want enough to bid for. Again, LWRC stepped forward as our benefactor, donating an "Experience Rowing" certificate and a T-Shirt. Another connection from the rowing community, JL Velo, the cycling gear brand of JL Racing, long renowned for their rowing apparel, donated a very nice all-weather cycling jacket.
Otherwise, the auction items were home grown, ranging from art and craft items, edibles, vacation cabins, various adventure experiences in boats, kayaks, rowing shells or hiking boots to an offer to weed someone's garden (I bid a high price for this one, but was outbid.)
Team members supplied the food and beverages, tended bar or cleaned up after based on an arbitrary division of labor.
Our Collective Success:
About 60 people showed up on one of the hottest days in history and an atmosphere of conviviality emerged with no particular effort from the planners. The live auction raised the bidding fervor and we left the silent auction open for a few minutes after to let people get in a last round of bids while in the mood.
When the accounting was over we had raised at least $5,500 and probably $5,800 from this event alone. The difference reflects some uncertainty whether a few of the donations were general sponsorship or event specific. Going in, we would have been happy to raise $2,000 and set $5,000 as our aim-for-the-stars impossible dream, so this one went well -- and was fun, too.
John Alberti
Team Captain of CB Riders for the 2009 Bike MS Ride