A month and a half ago, my husband and I were invited to the Boys and Girls Club Gala. Of course we accepted – it was a fun group of people and for a great cause.
I started playing soccer with the Boys & Girls Club when I was six, and ended up sticking with it right up until my senior year of college. I still cherish memories of all the fun I had during my soccer years, so I was a feeling bit nostalgic and looking forward to supporting future little soccer players.
When we were invited, our friend mentioned that our table was 70’s themed, which sounded pretty awesome. We gathered our costumes together (my accessories are in the photo above; not sure if they are actually 70’s or not, but I loved them!) and headed to the gala. When we walked in the door though, it was like “One of These Things Is Not Like the Other” from Sesame Street.
Except it was two things not like the others, and it was us.
My gold headband and orange flowey dress and DJ’s white vest and aviators where definitely NOT the tuxedos and ball-gowns that everyone else seemed to be wearing. We knew it was bad when the crowd scattered around us and no one made eye contact, and knew it was even worse when a colleague of my husbands did a double take, laughed hysterically, and told us that we’d been punked.
We decided that a trip to the bar was in order.
Eventually the rest of our table showed up, and it turned out that we were, in fact, dressed appropriately. They’d won the 70’s table in the previous year’s auction, and all were disco-ready.
Some cool things we learned about the Boys and Girls Club:
- Boys & Girls Clubs annually serve nearly 4 million youth through Club membership and community outreach.
- The Chronicle of Philanthropy placed Boys & Girls Clubs of America in the No. 1 position among youth organizations for the 18th consecutive year.
- $1.54 Billion = Total revenues of all Clubs and the national organization.
We also learned why auctions generally have such long cocktail hours (especially dangerous if you’re dressed in 70’s regalia and feeling awkward)… and ended up leaving the gala with a couple acution items.
What’s the best thing you’ve ever won at an auction?
