Back to Back Fundraising Events
Posted on April 22, 2017 by Ching under Events.
We had back to back fundraising events a couple of weeks ago. On Friday, April 7, we attended KANSEL Team Trivia which is a super fun event. Our friend Karen is the current board president but has been a member of the KANSEL board of directors since 2014.
We really didn’t know what to expect the first year that we attended the event but it was a blast so we look forward to Karen’s invitation every year. Last year we won a bunch of stuff in the silent auction. That’s always fun.
This year I got outbid on every single auction item that I bid on but Brian did come home with a couple of six packs from the beer pull.
Here’s a picture of our Westar Wizards trivia team this year.
This is Alex.
Faith attended as Alex’ guest.
This is Shane’s wife Sara. We recently found out that our moms work together at Weigand. The Batchelders are one of our most favorite couples to hang with at events. They are so fun!
The next day was a super crazy busy day. I had to teach my regular Saturday class and then we volunteered to help set up for Child Start’s Boots and Bling Gala. That was a lot of driving back and forth to the West side of town. The event was held at Eberly Farms, which is a good 30-minute drive from our house. On the plus side, it was a beautiful day so we got to enjoy the multiple long drives in my convertible.
After we completed our volunteer work, we went back home to shower and change for the party. I thought the event was generally successful. Brian and I had a blast. The only disappointment for me was that we didn’t have enough people from work attend the party. They gave us a whole row of seats and we only took up half of them, if that. It would have been nice to be able to fill all the seats.
We decided to ditch my car on the trip back to Eberly Farms because I actually fixed my hair and I wanted it to stay as much intact as possible. It was so windy that day though that my hair pretty much got wrecked just walking from the car to the entrance. There was no avoiding it. LOL.
We got to hang out with a bunch of young people from work. These are Corri and Josh Newman. Josh and I work together and have been to the same trainings and meetings. Brian and I met Corri for the first time when we ran into her and Josh at Aero Plains Brewing on the night that we went to see Toruk — The First Flight. They were also on their way to see it.
Kati attended the event as well.
The event included entertainment by the Delano Dollies and live music by Candice and the Business Casual.
The evening’s host/emcee KAKE News anchor Jim Grimes was also quite entertaining. He played blackjack at my table.
However, City Council Member and Wichita Wagonmaster Jeff Blubaugh who dealt at one of the blackjack tables was most entertaining of all.
He gave away so many tickets that he actually ran out!
I don’t know how many people went to jail but Brian actually did. Then he paid to get out and also jailed the woman who sent him to jail. It was pretty funny.
The marshals who took Brian to jail took their roles quite seriously.
They each had the perfect scowl to go with their costumes.
Despite having been sent to jail, Brian had a great time. It’s all part of the fundraising effort. We each bought more fake money than we needed so we started giving our $1000 bills away. LOL.
As fundraising events go, we really enjoyed this one and will be looking forward to it again when it comes around next year. That’s saying a lot because Brian and I go to a bunch of these benefits throughout the year.
I think the best part was that this lovely lady and her husband gave us the charcoal grill that he won. Brian and I contributed during the “fund a need” live auction and spent quite a bit during the casino portion of the evening but we didn’t really expect to get anything for it. We were fully prepared to just have a great time and chip in.
They were so generous to give us the grill, which Brian had been admiring since he laid eyes on it in the afternoon when we were setting up for the event. She said her husband was part of the event committee and he already had two other grills so he didn’t need it. We are so grateful that we were at the right place at the right time because this really made Brian’s weekend.
Brian spent the very next day putting his new grill together. Here’s the finished product. We haven’t used it yet but we plan to break it in next month when we have a Father’s Day cookout at the house.
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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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April Fool’s Day Thunder Hockey
Posted on April 16, 2017 by Ching under Things to Do.
The Wichita Thunder Hockey games are one of the many free match activities that I can take Nickira to but it seems she gets less and less interested in it every year. LOL. Nevertheless, we usually go to at least one game a year. The nice thing about it is sometimes we run into other matches we know. Like this last time we ran into Siera (our former Match Support Specialist) and her little.
We started off with a quick dinner at the Carlos O’Kelly’s restaurant by her house. Brian and I had never been there. We’d only been to the one on our side of town.
I felt compelled to take a bunch of photos because the interior was a lot nicer than we expected. It’s probably the nicest Carlos O’Kelly’s restaurant we’ve ever been in.
Don’t mind Brian. This is his RBF.
Nickira wanted some kind of pasta diablo dish for dinner but she said it wasn’t spicy. Brian and I shared the fajita trio pictured below. We had chicken, beef, and pork since Brian doesn’t really like shrimp.
Quick selfie.
We had so much extra food leftover and we had a little bit of time so we boxed up our leftovers and ran into back to Nickira’s house so her mom and brothers could have them later when she got off work.
Then we were off to the Wichita Thunder hockey game. Here’s a selfie that we took while Brian went off to get us some Dippin’ Dots.
After we finished our ice cream, it didn’t take long for Nickira to lose interest in the game. She decided to braid my hair instead.
She did stop briefly to try to catch some coupons or whatever it was they were dropping from the ceiling.
Jenni, Adam, and Ava actually joined us (Jenni actually likes the hockey games and knows who the teams are) but they left well before the game was over. We stayed pretty much until the end and then took the picture below on the way out.
Nickira is that age now that she is a little bit moody. She was quite chatty and jovial the night that we went to the hockey game. When I picked her up from her house yesterday, she was really quiet and wouldn’t talk to me. It turns out, her cousin Charlie had spent the night and she wanted to stay home and play with her. I told her that I wish she would have said something before we got all the way to my side of town because we could simply reschedule.
The original plan was to grab lunch and then take the dogs to the pup park but Brian and I were kind of having second thoughts about going to the pup park because of the weather forecast so I turned out fine that we had to cut our visit short. After a quick brunch at Livingston’s Diner, we took Nickira home. Charlie was still there so she was happy.
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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!
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