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Saturday July 5, 2014
Today was the long-awaited day, the culmination of many hours of work and frustration for many Hearts Of Gold Foundation volunteers. I caught a cab very early to the venue, Caballo Campana, and got busy taping up signs and setting up electrical, etc. It was necessary to coordinate with the venue staff to get many things re-arranged as we had requested.
Soon, most of the executive and volunteers showed up, but it was still a mish-mash as the volunteers scheduled to handle the initial onslaught of arriving patrons were not in place so other volunteers, including myself, had to fill in the gaps. Essential venue staff like the bar staff, the coat check, and the horseback supervisors were all late, again requiring some extra duty from our amazing core volunteers. Without these dedicated folks holding the fort initially, it could have been a disaster. Again, a huge THANK YOU to all those who helped out.
Many, many things did not happen as desired, or on time as requested, but the patrons were not aware of this so the show went on regardless, seemingly without a hitch.
The music was good although we expected more people to get and dance much sooner. It was hard to keep my feet still, especially when two-stepping music was playing.
We had activities for the children, including crafts, a magic show, and the afore-mentioned horseback riding. We had a good selection of varied music plus the very popular Brian Gary for live music. The fireworks show was short, but jam-packed and the most spectacular show we had seen in a long time. Everyone was impressed.
The food was poorly set up, not lined up as we had requested, but the quality was great and people seemed very happy with it. All leftovers were being donated to a local orphanage that HoG supports.
My greatest fear was the transportation busing to and from the venue, but our superb volunteers had that nailed down pretty close for almost 250 people and I never heard any complaints.
Overall it was a great turnout and it appears that everyone enjoyed it. Thank the Lord!
Chances are that this was my last function as Event Coordinator and it appears that this one will exceed our expectations for fundraising as well, keeping my record intact. The credit goes to the superior volunteers that we have at Hearts Of Gold who help bring these things to fruition. Somehow we make it work and the great patrons that support HoG keep coming through with their support. Hugs to everyone.
The hardcore volunteer group met later at La Terrace at the Villa Nova, had a few pops and blew off some steam. Finally I had a chance to sit down!
My apologies for the poorer quality of these photos. For convenience I had decided to use a smaller, less sophisticated camera so that I could move around more freely, which I certainly did, but now I deeply regret that decision.
NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.
Hope you enjoy the photos. That was the day's excitement, Cheers, Al
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| Setting up, looking toward the front of the hall |
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| Looking to the rear of the hall |
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| Dressed western for the event |
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| Even the back of the vest is cool |
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| The kids' crafts were underway |
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| The hall is filling up, almost 400 people came |
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| The kids made fancy crowns or guitars |
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| Tents outside for GringoTree and the Red Cross |
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| Some of the patrons, gringos and Ecuadorians |
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| Horseback riding in a large paddock |
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| Kids were lining up for their turn |
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| The line-up was steady to get food |
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| Brian Gary is a very popular musician |
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| The horseback riding continued until almost dark |
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| What an awesome setting for this event |
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| A very large crowd on hand |
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| Rich Westcott entertained the kids with a magic show |
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| I expected adults to crowd around too... |
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| Finally folks got up and danced |
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| Even some line-dancers showed us their moves |
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| This lucky 50-50 winner picked up about $640 |
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| The fireworks started about 7:45 |
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| Boy! Did we light up the sky! |
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| Our Executive Director salutes you |
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| Everybody made a big circle and danced some more |
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| The die-hards danced until the end |
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| We cooled down at La Terrace afterwards |
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| Some were still in a dancing mood |
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| A good time was had by all |
