So, Last night, I was hostess for a Bartender Auction at PURR to benefit Rise 'n' Shine.
'Wednesday night', I thought - probably not a huge crowd.
Bartender Auction...hmmm Never done one. How much will people bid $100, $200 max?
Oh, well - paint on a face, look fabulous, have fun and bring in some bucks for a great cause. Besides, Barbie at PURR has always been great to me, and Rick from Rise 'n' Shine couldn't be sweeter.
Let's do it!
What a nice surprise then to arrive at 6:45 to a good sized crowd - already in full swing; there was a lot of food on the tables, and the cocktails were flowing - nice!
Upstairs to get ready, meet the bartenders and go over the format, etc.
13 bartenders from PURR, Madison Pub, CUFF, and RPlace had committed to being there - and they ALL WERE - no scaredy-cats! Well, ok, a couple were, but they came anyway (am I still in Seattle?)
Barbie and Rick ran over the rules, then it was downstairs to mingle.
Even more people had arrived.
So then the auction begins - a bit slow at first, people are shy; both the audience and the bartenders. But then, things heat up. After a couple of individual bids, I brought up Rock and Kevin from PURR and started a bidding war over the 2 of them.
They were bumping and humping and removing clothes (don't worry - PURR still has it's license) and working up the crowd.
Final bid? $750 for Rock, and $700 for Kevin.
"It's not a competition!!!" said Kevin, who then added, " but I made $67 in tips while we were dancing, so I beat him" :)
After that, things really got rolling. The crowd had it's drink on, and we ended the evening with, are you ready for it?
Over $10,000.
Ten. THOUSAND. Doll Hairs.
Incredible.
THANK YOU TO: Barbie (PURR) Rick (Rise 'n' Shine) All the bartenders from Madison Pub, RPlace, CUFF and PURR. All the restaurants that donated dinners for 2 for the 'dates' the the bartenders and the winning bidders went on. ( I don't remember all their names - I'll post them here when I do...)
AND to all the folks who came out to have fun and raised some serious cash for a kick-ass charity. ( risenshine.org )
It was really a tremendous experience to see fundraising at such a visceral level.
Those of you who are familiar with my fundraising involvement with, 'another local organization' may be interested to consider this.
A typical BINGO raised anywhere from $10,000 -$14,000 per month. But that was with 800-850 people paying $20 each to get in, + special games, liquor (sometimes $7,000 per month on alcohol alone) Then, consider the prodution costs and huge adminstative costs to cover that organization's infrasructure.
The bartender auction was attended by perhaps 200 people, max. $10,000 was raised out-of-pocket. Not much advertising. Minimal overhead.
And - it's for the kids!
The dollars raised last night were from the heart, and fill go so far towards helping kids cope with impact of HIV/AIDS in their families lives.
I can't say THANK YOU enough!