Friday, February 21, 2014

February 18- Fund Raising 'Benefit for Mary'

You have already read on my previous Blogs how much community work the expats and their Ecuadorean friends of Salinas do for the children and families in need –see              http://uwepetrastravelyear.blogspot.com/2013_12_01_archive.html
  but this time one of our own needed our help.

Now for a bit of background-everyone’s good friend Mary had had a bicycle accident back in last June. While trying to avoid getting hit by a car while riding in the bicycle lane along the Salinas Malecon, Mary crashed into a light pole instead badly breaking her upper arm. After a hospital stay and surgery she was on the mend. Remember it takes much longer for broken bones to repair once you hit a certain age- LOL. In early December she re-insured her arm in a freak accident undoing all healing that had occurred during the previous 5 months. Now she needed far more complicated surgery involving bone and skin grafts and her insurance no longer covered this necessary procedure.

To the rescue came our entire expat population along with our various Ecuadorian friends. We number under 200 in the Santa Elena area. After Dee convinced Mary to accept our help, a committee of 9 planned a night of fund raising to be held at one of our local Expat bars’ Sin’.

A group of these volunteered to purchase, cook & serve a great meal- turkey, beans, cole slaw, buns & many deserts. Others organized a Silent Auction to be held that night approaching local businesses & individuals  to donate meals, B&B stays, dance lessons, teeth cleaning, original paintings, musical instruments, jewelry, baked goods= you name it, we had it- a grand total of 26 prizes. Notices via Facebook and email were sent out plus donation jars were placed in some of our Expat hangouts- Will’s Place/Hostel Aqui, Smokin, Smiley Gringo and Sin. A schedule was also drawn up for volunteers to collect at the bar door- we were charging $10 with food and $5 after food ran out. Plus, best of all, the incredible Toda Band were donating their services for our event! We were also going to run a 50/50 draw to raise even more $$$’s. All this with the grand evening scheduled only 1 week away.

Once notices went out, donations via Paypal or cash dropped off started pouring in. Wow- the amazing generosity of all our friends!

                       Finally the big night arrived ‘Benefit for Mary’ and what a night it was!


                               The first door shift- over 140+ people came!

          The many many friends enjoying the food, the band, the company






                      The many items up for bids at the Silent Auction

                                    The amazing Toda Band- great sets!

                         And lots and lots of people dancing the night away.

The Benefit was a huge success. People ate and danced until after 10:30PM- pretty late for us old geezers and an incredible $3933 was raised. What an amazing community we live in!




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