Lansdowne Fundraiser

Finally the main event.  My Bar Night at the Lansdowne Pub.  I was particularly excited about this fundraiser for a number of reasons.  First of all, this was my main fundraising event that I was hoping would put me over my minimum.  Second, I love the Lansdowne.  It's one of my favorite bars in Boston.  It's located right behind the Fenway Park center field bleachers on Lansdowne Street so you really can't get much more quintessentially Boston than that.  Also, they always have great live (mainly cover) bands and an energetic fun crowd.  Finally, I got a really great response to the fundraiser and knew many of my favorite people would be there from a variety of groups of friends--everyone from college friends, sorority sisters, coworkers, TNT runners, and even broomball teammates.

Sara, AP, Erin, Elise, and Zach

To entice my guests I worked out a deal with the Lansdowne to get not only the space but also some free finger food.  On top of that I decided to hold a raffle.  Now if you remember my story from my bowling tournament, finding raffle prizes can prove a bit tricky.  I found that a lot of places say they are willing to donate (and I think they are) but they are horrible about following up which required a lot of time and effort on the fundraiser's part.  I started early this time and with a week to go before the fundraiser I was still short on prizes.  I contacted my mentor, Aimee and she came through.  Her friend Jay offered to donate one of his beautiful photographs at cost (check them out at Jaypisano.com), Aimee herself donated candy from Necco where she works for the candy basket on the table above, and she offered to go around to a few restaurants in the South End with me which resulted in a gift certificate to Picco. In end end I lucked out by winning Revolution tickets at my teammate Travis's fundraiser the weekend before and made a couple of successful calls to the places where I white water rafted and skydived the summer before.

My table after the raffle

Here are all of the prizes I ended up rounding up:

• Maine White Water Rafting trip for 2 from U.S. Rafting
• 4 tickets to the BU v Providence Hockey Game on Feb 18th
• 2 for 1 Tandem Skydiving at Skydive Pepperell in Pepperell, MA
• Gift Certificate to Modern Pastry in the North End
• Red Sox Jacket (care of my parents)
• 4 box seats to the New England Revolution home opener at Gillette and 4 Tickets to 5 Wits at Patriot Place
• Gift Certificate to Legal Seafood (care of my former roommate Sara)
• Gift Certificate to Picco Restaurant in the South End
• Original Framed Photograph from Jay Pisano (check out all his work at www.jaypisano.com)
• A Candy basket from Necco (makers of Clark Bars, Sky Bars, and Sweethearts)

The fundraiser is starting to get crazy

 After finally locking down the prizes and then running around like crazy the few hours before picking up the photo from Jay and making the poster to display the prizes, I was finally all set.  The event went off without a hitch (aside from some accusations that I didn't mix up the raffle tickets enough) and everyone had a great time.  I raised $550 which put me right around my fundraising minimum and although I may have broken my cell phone and left my credit card at the bar, I still say the night was a success!  Check out all the pictures in the "Photo" tab.

My roommate Elise and a rare showered pic of me