This certainly turned into a day of extremes. We went from celebrating the memory of a friend who has recently died, to celebrating a holiday commonly recognized as honoring the birth of a teacher with whom millions of people claim to have a deep and personal relationship. We spent big bucks on tickets for a one-night event that benefits people locally and worldwide who have next to nothing. And the contrasts all seemed to fit together seamlessly.
This afternoon was all about our friend Andy. We met up at a brewery in Loveland with twenty five or thirty people who knew him well, and raised some glasses in his memory. He died of brain cancer on Halloween, but today proved that he will live on for years to come in our hearts and in the lives of his children, who were also there. I met Andy when I was in marching band at CU, before I even met Mr Smith. He, on the other hand, met Andy back in his early teenage years, when they both were in the same church youth group. Without my relationship with Mr S-P, I probably would have lost touch with Andy immediately after graduation, but they continued to be friends (and at first co-workers, before the air force years), and so I got to keep up with him too. Today I met one of Andy's oldest friends who, as it turns out, was also in band with us. I can't say at this point whether I was aware of him back then, but I was glad to meet him now, and I admire the long-standing loyalty and friendship he gave Andy. Everyone in that room was able to smile and tell happy stories about a man who was worthy of our regard and love. It was a lovely goodbye.
This evening was the Rotary Holiday Ball. I very specifically kept myself removed from the planning committee on this one. I just did not have the energy and focus to throw into this event. I was handed a pack of tickets several weeks ago, and told to put together a table, and I didn't quite get that far. I managed to get six of us there, and I am proud of that. I posted the flyer on the rotary website, made an event on our Facebook page, and hyped it in every week's newsletter. That was as much as I could accomplish.
Even with me falling short of my goal of a ten-top friendship table, the event was a smashing success. There were about 300 guests in attendance, which means we raised somewhere between $20-30,000 to be split between two charities. Our "gold" and "silver" sponsors fronted the money for the hall, food, band, and photo booth. So all ticket sales went to ShelterBox and the Inn-Between. If you are not familiar with either of those, the Inn-Between is a local residence facility that provides a temporary home for people who have suddenly found themselves homeless or who are in significant danger of doing so, but who are still employed and who want to stay together with their families while they get back on their feet. They have case managers who provide support and there is training available to aid in transitioning back to full independence. They operate here locally. ShelterBox is a global organization who I have mentioned before, when they set up a demo at our summer picnic. They provide disaster relief and refugee emergency services all around the world, exactly as their name describes, by fitting all the necessary fundamentals of shelter into a large plastic footlocker. A shelter box has a large tent (could easily sleep ten people), with blankets, water collection gear, cups and plates, construction tools (hammer, nails, saw, shovel, etc), and even school supplies. They have command centers in several locations, from which they can reach nearly the whole world. In some cases they can show up with shelter boxes directly, and in some situation they are able to use partners to get aid to places where they can't enter. (The example we were told was that to get relief to people in Syria, they had to use emissaries in Turkey.) Sometimes it isn't just the basic box. During the winter they provided small kerosene space heaters to those same people in Syria, so that they could stay in their homes even though the power was out after fighting in places like Aleppo. I asked the representative from the charity tonight roughly how many people they have helped to date, and he said they have helped 1.1 million people so far, so back of envelope math, if there are 10 people housed in one box, they have sent out over a hundred thousand shelter boxes.
I won't have the final total on money raised until it's announced at our rotary meeting, but each charity will see over $10,000 from us. This is a great achievement, but it is really just a drop in the bucket for the need that is out there. I know that there are national movements to give days of this week theme names, like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, etc. One of those themed days is Giving Tuesday. If you don't have a plan in place to donate, or you are still looking for a worthy cause, might I suggest that you look for an organization in your home town that fills the same need as our Inn-Between (or give to ours if you're here in northern Colorado -- theinnbetween.org), or consider donating to ShelterBox.org? That feeling that you get from sharing with those who are in need is what makes life worth living, I promise. Give freely and give often. It will make you feel like celebrating.
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