Fundraisers In A Close By Town

I have participated in many fundraisers over the years. My favorite was a Native American art auction that I hosted for a job I held at the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center. I worked there in the 90s.

The art auction had pieces donated by every artist that I knew and other artist's that they knew. My sister, as an artist, donated the most. And she was there to assist with the whole thing. She was the hostess for the event.

The food was Native American cuisine.

In retirement though, I have participated in purchasing a table and donating to a basket for the YMCA in Grand Rapids, MN. There were silent auction items that were donated as well as live auction items that were all donated.

The food was buffet style with choices to satisfy most.

I have helped fundraise by selling raffle tickets. Books of tickets for a list of prizes that were primarily sporting goods, for grandchildren's sports activities/expenses. Then I bought plenty of items sold from catalogs from the girl scouts and other kids' fundraisers.

This week I attended a fundraiser for the Second Harvest in Northern, MN. It was a chef's gala with 4 or 5 courses. The wine was the final thing distributed and I don't know if that was considered a course or not. My dinner ended with a delicious orange-lemon cheesecake.

The food was served to the table and the chefs each talked about the dish they contributed. All the food was donated.

My sister-friend invited me and it was a table purchased by her workplace in Brainerd, MN. One of the people she supervises is on the board for Second Harvest. Second Harvest provides all the food pantry items for both Brainerd and Staples, or their two community colleges.

We all had a great time and they raised a total of $115,000. in about four hours.

It was fun listening to the excitement about one of the people on a video that was shown of people that were helped by the food shelf. At first, they didn't show their faces. When they did the woman that was helped by their college was a black woman.

Why that is important is because one of the staff at our table was black and a woman came up to her afterward and said how she was so grateful that second harvest was able to help her. I was appalled and thought, "Oh no, it is one of those people that think all black people look alike."

The woman was gracious however and thanked the woman. She did not say anything more. She had decided it was because she was at the table where the food pantry was located. It appeared the most upset at the table were caucasian people.

This happens to black, and Native American people so often that it isn't as shocking as it once was. This woman was young but appeared less affected than most others at the table.

I have a standard, nope not me or not my tribe when I get called someone else's name or asked about other tribal beliefs, i.e. do you sundance?

That put a bit of a damper on the event and it may determine whether I attend that event in the future. It shouldn't but it may.

A native woman that was a celebrity waiter and a newer director at Blandin was probably the most entertaining when auctioning off her basket of goodies.

She kept looking at me like she should know me earlier in the evening. She shouldn't, although we have met once. I know I can be memorable but once? She is forgiven!

The Blandin director pulled out a dozen eggs and called them gold as she introduced them. They now cost $8.00 in our grocery stores. I was so surprised that I said loudly, "Really? $8.00 for eggs!" My sister friend promptly said, "Does John buy the eggs?"

Then I replied, "Yes, he does, and he will continue to!"

That was good for a laugh, although, not everyone knew if it was okay to laugh or not at that. After all, I am their boss's sister! It was way okay with me and with Mary. We laugh a lot together and it is usually about something we have said or done.

One last thing. The room got louder as the evening rolled on, so Mary and I decided to leave early and I was home before any drunk drivers were on the road. The event was to end at 10:30. We left around 9:30.