Where do I even begin with the “Thank You” moments from last night?
If you were there, you saw me speechless a few times. I simply don’t know how to express the pride…the sense of accomplishment…the gratitude…the…
…the everything that came about as a result of last night.
Bob and Jeff feel the same way as well…and so I’m going to try and make a run at it…
First and foremost, thanks to Russ Dotson for the thought of doing this. Just when I was frustrated as all hell with Toys for Tots and thought we wouldn’t be doing anything at all other than the event itself…he came to us with this idea, and we loved it. But it never would’ve happened if he hadn’t extended himself a bit and took a chance that we’d be open to hearing the idea in the first place.
A special note of thanks to LN1 Beth K., BM1 Jeffrey D., BM3 Jessica C., and BM2 Rich B. for taking the time out of their already hectic lives and busy schedules to “show the flag” so to speak, and be the in-person faces of the people we were aiming to help with the event. I’m sure that hanging out in a room full of geeks isn’t high on their to-do lists, and they were simply phenomenal chatting with everyone, answering questions, talking about what they do and what their service means to them…it was just great having them there.
And then, of course, thank you to everyone who showed up last night.
It was great seeing everyone, and we had a ton of new faces show up as well. I’m pleased to say that every one of those new faces commented on what a great group of people were there, and how awesome it was that we were doing something like this for the information technology industry out here, as well as loving the cause for the night.
The donations were just outstanding. More importantly, I’m glad to see people read what we put out on the site over the last couple of weeks.
Looks like we had a total of 12 iPods come in. Wow.
Probably 20 new sets of ear buds, and 6 skype-ish head sets.
A couple hundred toothbrushes and tubes of toothpaste.
50 or 60 things of baby wipes.
Enough candy to make most of North America diabetic.
$125 in iTunes gift cards.
$50 in AMC theater gift cards.
$50 in PF Chang cards.
Two, $50 Spa Finder cards.
Plus about $850 in cash.
…and there were people there last night asking if they could make additional donations as well, and the answer is “Yes, of course“. The game plan is that we’re going to get together here in the near future, figure out what we’re “short” on package-wise, and make sure we get everything needed.
So, if you want to make a donation, there’s still time. Please touch base with us, or feel free to contact Russ as well.
Absolutely nothing else remarkable happened.
Nothing at all.
That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.
For now…
Just as a reminder, the bios for the folks we’re helping out are still out there at http://www.ITinTheD.com/category/meet-the-troops/