November 3rd was our Second Winter Wonderland Event at Valley River Inn.

 

What a Magical night! We had over 280 friends and supporters that gathered to celebrate our,organization and the last 5 years of our communities effort to build our programs and support our mission.

 

We started the evening with presenting the 2011 Children Champion Award to the Market of Choice and the Wright family for their contribution to our communities Children and to AFFEC for displaying our Heart Gallery for over 3 years. Market of choice has consistently been one of our most popular venue.

 

We were also honored to have Sarah and Shirell Shipley, speak about Shirell's adoption journey to the Shipley Family. They were both impressive and very touching, we are so grateful to be apart of their story and for their willingness to share their story with our supportive audience. Later that evening, that same supportive group, all contributed to purchasing the puppy (one of our oral auction items) for Shirell to take home, what a special moment.

 

The evening went on to include 18 Oral/live Auction items, over 100 Silent Auction Items, a Wine Wall, Dessert Dash and a paddle up request. It was truly an energetic and exciting evening.

 

As a young organization, with this being only our second year, we were new to setting our fundraising goals and expectations. However we were very grateful for the support that we received that evening and exceeded our goal of 75,000 dollars for the evening. One of the area's we are most proud of, is how low our expenses were. With only 8,000 dollars going to our expenses.

 

Thank-you to all of you, and our many volunteers that made this evening happen, we were blessed to take back to our programs over 76,000 (net) to support our mission and fine homes for our communities children!

 

THANK-YOU ALL!!!