Amazing generosity, closed for business

So last night was the club social run.  It was a HUGE success.  I headed right over to the running store after work to help get stuff set up, the event didn’t start until 6.  Before the event even started we had already raised close to $3000 just from the online part of the fund raiser.

The event was free but participants were also encouraged to donate to the fund.  We also had a raffle where a number of donated items would be given away after the run.  Well as 6PM drew near a huge crowd developed.  At first I was working the donation/raffle table myself, thankfully Ali showed up shortly thereafter.  The donation line extended way out the door of the running store.

At first the thought process was the raffle/donation would kind of be a separate thing but it soon morphed into one.  People realized that if the money was going to the same place whether it was via raffle or a straight donation, they should just do the raffle.  It made sense, give to the fund and get a chance to win something.

Well since the tickets were $2 each or three for $5 we were quite busy.  We had people donating as much as $100 which translated into 60 raffle tickets.  I would count out the tickets and tear them in half, giving the the person their stubs.  Ali was in charge of tearing our stubs into individual tickets to be placed in the drawing box.  We had tickets, cash and checks flying everywhere.  We even enlisted three people to hand out tickets to people standing in line. It was crazy.

Ali said she was ok not running and would tend to the mountain of money that we collected.  I headed out with the crowd to do the run.  I might have covered 2 1/2 miles with Cindy. I didn’t have my GPS, but it felt like a pretty fast pace.  The one good thing about running quickly was I beat a good chunk of the crowd back to the store so I actually got some food this time, which consisted of a slice a cheese pizza and some tortilla chips.  I also managed to score one free beer which I basically chugged because the area I was in was so congested, it was driving me a bit nuts.

Ali had totaled the money that came in, it was an amazing $3000 +. When totaled with the online donations that meant the club had raised over $6000 for this girls family living expenses.  The generosity of all that participated was really incredible.  It felt good to know that I was part of the great core of people in our group that turned an email request for help into this event in about a week.  Online donations for Elizabeth are still coming in.  I have no plans to take it offline anytime soon.

My gym is closed today due to construction being done to the plaza it is housed in.  Instead of chalking it up as a day off I instead hope to head to the nearby parking garage and do an endurance set of alternating 10 push ups and 10 body weight squats for a half hour straight.