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Kentucky Derby Party

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Ching under Community, Events.

These are pictures from the Kentucky Derby Party event earlier this month. The fundraising event was hosted by the Rotary Club of East Wichita and benefited Starkey, EmberHope, and Heartspring.

I donned by best hat and put on my party face and off we went!

The boys had a great time competing in the horse-racing event.

Brian and I agreed that I would not be any good at this event so we decided that he should represent team FLIP + CHING. He actually did quite well in his heat and advanced to the semi-finals and, eventually, the finals.

This is what they were racing.

I’m not sure who came up with this game but I found it clever and fun.

This is the final round.

Brian did fantastic overall and finished in third place.

Instead of having a silent auction, they decided to raffle off some of the smaller packages and then conducted a live auction for the bigger prize packages. All the prizes were great but the only one that we were interested in was the Symphony in the Flint Hills package. We didn’t end up winning that package because Brian and I couldn’t decide quickly enough whether or not we wanted to bid on it. However, I volunteered us to help with the SFH event this year so we are going to be there anyway. The best part of volunteering for these types of events is that I get credit for the volunteer hours and still get to enjoy the show!

This is a list of the generous people and businesses who made the first ever Kentucky Derby Party a success.

I’m so glad Tammie invited us because we had a great time.

I saw lots of familiar Rotarians and I also ran into Ginger’s daughter Sarah.

Although we didn’t win any of the raffle or auction items, Brian got to hang out with some amazing people and learned more about the Kentucky Derby in one afternoon than we ever would have had we not attended the event. Tammie and the rest of the event committee did a fantastic job. They raised $10,500 for the three charities.

It was a fabulous fundraising event/party and a great way to spend our Saturday afternoon.

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WASAC’s Take Back the Night

Posted on May 21, 2017 by Ching under Community, Events, Things to Do.

These are pictures from our team building volunteer activity for the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center‘s Take Back the Night event. My friend and coworker Alex is an avid volunteer for the agency and she arranged it so that we would man the Community Quilt Project station at the event.

I don’t really know much about WASAC and their programs but I agreed to volunteer in support of Alex. She is always so generous with her time and volunteers for things at organizations that I’m passionate about so it was my turn to return the favor. There are no pictures of Brian because he didn’t want to do this event with me. It turned out all right because we had enough representation at the event. It would have been nice to have him there but it was okay that he wasn’t. There wasn’t much to the volunteer activity.

We basically just talked with people at the event and encouraged them to participate in the Community Quilt Project. We had two tables with several blank fabric squares and colorful markers. We also had completed squares on display as examples. Each person’s contribution is an art work or saying on fabric square, which would then be incorporated into a big community quilt.

I wanted to contribute to the Community Quilt Project so I designed a couple of patches also. Some people got really artsy and did drawings but I’ve never been any good at that so I just wrote a bunch of encouraging words down and decorated/colored them.

I’d never been to one of these events before so this was my first. I’m not sure what the participation and attendance was like last year but this event was very well attended. I think it also helped that some awesome food trucks were there, including my friend’s truck Kamayan.

It was interesting to hear stories from survivors and supporters. I think it actually worked out better that Brian didn’t go because he would not have had the attention span for it. Please visit the WASAC web site to learn more about support groups, volunteer opportunities, advocacy, and other services.

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Pictures from the Society of 1895 Luncheon

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Ching under Community, School, Things to Do.

I had to be in Kansas City on the day of the Society of 1895 luncheon at Wichita State University. Fortunately, Brian was able to attend for the both of us. This is a selfie that he sent me on his way to the event.

Brian snapped a few photos while he was there, including one of his name tag.

He was texting me the photos to make me feel like I was there with him also.

Since this was kind of my thing, Brian didn’t want me to miss out.

It looked like a great turn out. I found out after the fact that Jill Frasco and Bill Moore were both at the event, which made me feel really bad for missing out.

Brian took a picture of the little blurb they printed about us in the program, but also took home a couple of the programs (one for us and one to give to grandma).

Here’s what the cover of the program looks like.

Brian ended up sitting with Lou Heldman, one of my most favorite WSU figures.

Lou made sure that Brian left with an extra one of the parting gifts that all the guests received at the event so I would have one as well.

Brian took a photo of the fancy-looking framed certificate that we received, which he accepted for the two of us.

Here he is with Wichita State University President John Bardo and the President of the Wichita State University Foundation Elizabeth King.

I think this is one of the official event photos.

You can see more photos from the event on the Wichita State University Foundation Facebook page here. To learn more about the Society of 1895 and the Wichita State University Foundation’s Planned Giving options, click here.

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My First Official Zumbathon®

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Ching under Community, Zumba.

I organized my first official zumbathon® last month but I couldn’t have pulled it off without the help of my fundraising team and some very awesome friends. It was a lot of work but it was also very rewarding.

When Faith and I first talked about hosting a zumbathon® to raise money for Big Brothers Big Sisters, I wasn’t sure how it would do. I put some feelers out to my Zumba® instructor friends and was completely overwhelmed with the positive response. Everyone wanted to help. We ended up with nine instructors teaching at the event. It was awesome!

I wanted the event to be a success so I was aiming for a huge turnout. I wanted to draw everyone to the event, not just my Zumba® fanatic friends so we agreed to have a huge raffle. I asked every single local business I could think of and, after all was said and done, we had 24 amazing raffle packages.

As an added bonus, we got 15 of these portable power chargers donated from work.

Since we didn’t have enough for everyone, the first 15 people to spend $20 in raffle tickets received one.

We also partnered with one of the local boutiques who generously gave every single zumbathon® guest $10 to spend at the store.

I bought 24 mason jars and 24 wooden easel stands and we used the hard, plastic document holders that Brian already had in storage, which we didn’t have 24 of but I didn’t think we would need all of the mason jars and stands. I had no idea we would end up running out of the hard, plastic document covers. We used all of the mason jars I had and all of the wooden easel stands and just used plastic sheet protectors for the other raffle item descriptions. It was a good problem to have.

Here’s what the raffle description sheet looked like assembled.

Lots of effort and planning went into the event. Above is the first poster I made, which had to be redone according to Zumba® requirements. The updated poster is on the right. These are the key things to remember for a zumbathon® to be approved by Home Office:

· The event title needs to be clearly listed on the flyer.

· Any flyer for a Zumba® Fitness event must list the full name of the licensed Zumba® instructor or their instructor ID.

Zumba® has major beef with unlicensed instructors also known as “party crashers” riding the coattails of the Zumba® brand to promote their events so they’re very strict about seeing the full instructor names on the flyers. This way unlicensed instructors can’t use the brand. The same expectation goes for classes. You cannot call it a “Zumba®” class unless the instructor is licensed.

· Finally, any time Zumba® and Zumba® Fitness logos appear on a flyer, the following disclaimer must be added: Zumba® and the Zumba® Fitness logos are trademarks of Zumba Fitness, LLC, used under license.

Home Office doesn’t play. I had to make all of these changes before my zumbathon® could be approved and listed on the Zumba.com web site.

Because I’m a nerd, Brian and I went to scope out the gym a few weeks ahead of time. I took lots of pictures to help me plan decorations and other logistics.

Here’s the mock up of my decoration plan:

The main difference is that, even though I bought 50 feet of gold fringe, we didn’t have enough to cover that wall as planned. There’s a part where something sticks out from the wall and we had to fringe around it. I really should have brought a tape measure and measured everything out instead of just eyeballing it.

We also ended up with so many raffle items that we had to take three long conference room tables and place them along the gold fringe wall to display the items and the jars. With the raffle along the gold fringe wall, we ended up moving our two coolers filled with water bottles next to the raffle ticket sales table. We stuck to the blueprint except for those two minor changes.

I bought all of this gold fringe and they still weren’t enough. I’ve made a mental note to buy 75-80 feet of gold fringe for the next event.

Here’s a picture of the front entrance of our Wichita service building… On the day of the event, I tied several colorful balloons at the bottom and the top of the three handrails. We also wrapped the tree that’s by the entrance of the parking lot with multiple colorful balloons to make it easier for people to find our event venue.

These are the matching shirts that I got for the instructors. The shirts came in aqua blue (Christina, Amy, and Todd), neon green (Missy, Andrea, and me), and black (Stephanie, Pat, and Charis). Brian got an honorary shirt for being such a good helper and I threw the extra blue and green shirts in the raffle.

The Friday afternoon before the event, Mike helped me bring a bunch of stuff over from the office to the gym. Brian and I were supposed to take my little sister to the Wichita State vs. Texas Tech baseball game that night but she canceled on me last minute because her aunt, uncle, and cousins were in town. We figured that we would stay home and blow up balloons instead (so we wouldn’t have to stay up all night doing so after the game).

After we finished blowing up the balloons, Brian had the brilliant idea to make a trip to the gym to drop off some supplies so we wouldn’t have to make two trips the next day. He had the right idea. We barely had enough room for what was left.

We definitely would have had to make two trips had we not had the foresight to transport some things the night before.

I randomly bought this “Let It Move You” free-standing banner last year because I thought it was awesome and I finally found use for it.

The funny thing is, I don’t think anyone noticed it. LOL. Now I can’t wait to have another Zumba® event so I can bust it out.

These are my fabulous teammates Alicia and Alex all set to sell raffle tickets.

The instructors who came to help us setup got to preview the awesome raffle items before anyone else. I have to say, the gold fringe wall turned out pretty darn cool.

The custom banner I had made turned out awesome as well.

Eleanor came to party with us but then had to leave early. However, Francie was around to claim her prize when we drew her name in the raffle.

Lucky duck!

Here’s a fun picture of me and Alex.

Here’s me and Andrea in our matching shirts.

Here’s me and Amy.

This is me taking a selfie with one of our strategically-placed playlist printouts. Here’s the full playlist, in case you were wondering…

Here’s a group shot of the Zumba® crew who came out early to help set up.

Here’s Brian being matchy-matchy with Charis, Pat, and Stephanie.

I love this photo of me and Christina. Since we finished decorating ahead of schedule, we had some time to goof around a bit before the doors opened.

The gold fringe wall was a huge hit!

We also had fun with the two photo wall backdrops.

The photo booth props that Faith loaned us worked out great as well.

We had a disco ball at one goal and a makeshift Christmas-light chandelier at the other. We didn’t really have a specific plan for the lights because they weren’t part of my mock up but Amy brought them and by golly we were going to use them. LOL. It actually turned out pretty cool.

The event was super fun and I thought it ran pretty smoothly. I’ve made a few notes about how we can further improve the event if we hold it again next year. In the meantime, we’ve got lots of time to think and plan.

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Pictures From Chick-Fil-A and Chipotle

Posted on April 6, 2017 by Ching under Community.

Here are some pictures from our Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraising events at Chick-Fil-A (Central and Rock) and Chipotle (Maple and Ridge).

Alex and Faith manned the Spirit Wheel at Chick-Fil-A. I was in Kansas City that night but Brian was there to support the event and take pictures for me. He kept me posted all evening and made me feel like I was there with them.

Kate came out to support the event.

Christina and Jake were there at Chick-Fil-A too.

Brian got a selfie with Alex.

Here’s a picture of Lila, her husband Michael, and their kiddos.

These next set of photos were taken at Chipotle on Monday night.

Misty came to both events but she only did the drive-thru at Chick-Fil-A. Since she came and ate inside this last time, I made sure to get a selfie with her.

April and Gavin came to eat and support the fundraiser as well.

Jeff and Devan came out also.

There were a few others who came to support the fundraiser that I didn’t get pictures with because Brian and I left to go workout after we had early supper. Probably not the smartest idea I’ve had.

After Zumba at South YMCA, some of Missy’s peeps came out to eat with 10 minutes left on our fundraiser.

Here’s a pic of me and Danielle.

Danielle, Erin, Wendy, and Todd.

Here’s a picture of our group shutting down the fundraiser. We had such a great time visiting that I almost forgot to pick up my work car for the drive to Kansas City the next day. We drove clear past downtown before I remembered.

Anyway, if you missed our restaurant fundraising events, not to worry. You can still donate and support the cause. I’m accepting donations via my Big Brothers Big Sisters fundraising page (simply click on the link and follow the prompts). Thanks in advance for supporting this awesome organization. You’re making a difference!