What a benefit!

Wow, I'm still recovering from the benefit this past Wednesday! What an event! We served about 175 people, which was amazing. The silent auction had 53 items in it ranging from quilts to power drills to handmade cards. The bake sale had more baked goods than a bakery! FOUR 8-foot tables filled the room, just dripping with baked goods. Bars, cookies, breads, whole cakes and pies, jams, salsas...it was endless. And then there was the spaghetti! The meat sauce was donated by Chef Dale Beaubien from Restaurant 301 in the Sheraton Hotel in Duluth. The "non-meat" sauce was donated by Super One Foods. The salad was donated by Drew Truckey. The coffee was donated by Toni Poupore-Haats. Bread was donated by my mom, Vickie Anderson. And to fill in the gaps were gift cards from Cub Foods and Sam's Club. And of course what kind of an event would it be without the orange drink donated by McDonald's. Every single tummy was full, I can tell you that!! Some even came up for seconds, and a few brave souls came up for thirds. The whole room was buzzing with such positive energy the whole time. Everything fit together perfectly, and even the things we didn't think of beforehand fell into place as if they were planned.

We told Bennett we were going to a "spaghetti party", and he was all excited. We went around to the tables and he said "Thank you for coming!", but we know we didn't get to see everyone (so thank you EVERYONE!). He also played a little dinner music on the piano for everyone, which may have been one of his favorite parts of the night.

Like I said, we served around 175 people, and this could not have been done without the super volunteers that donated their time and sweat to make this happen. Many of them were there before 10am, and a lot of them stayed until the bitter end at 7:30pm. We are so very appreciative to these many people, we cannot say "thank you" enough! A big thank you also goes out to Concordia Lutheran Church for giving us the space, the time, the people, the hard work, the donations and the prayers. Thank you to all of the bakers out there who donated their delicious baked goods, I wish I could've "quality checked" them all! Thank you to all of the generous people who donated items to the silent auction, what a wonderful array of items! A special thank you to Lynne Erickson for doing the silent auction, and to Anne and crew for doing the bake sale. Thank you Bret, Pam and Pastor Dave for calming all of my nerves and for all of your hard work. And I'm sure I'm forgetting someone or something, THANK YOU!

5 days until the Big Benefit!

Wow! I can't believe the benefit is in less than a week! It is all coming together, like a big puzzle...you can't tell what the final picture will look like, but with the help of others, pieces are put into place and you start to see the shape of it all. I keep saying "it takes a village to raise a child". Well, it takes a whole community to put on a benefit! So many people have helped, and will help, it's unbelievable!

Nathan and I really want to thank everyone for their support, prayers and donations. Everything helps, EVERYTHING!

News on the Bennett-front: B started preschool last week. He cannot get enough of it! He is in the deaf/hard of hearing class and is doing very well. They speak and sign in this class, which is fun for B since he loves sign language (even though he only knows a few words from home). I think his favorite thing about preschool is the bus. Yes, he gets to ride the big yellow school bus to and from school. He literally runs onto the bus, and starts waving and blowing kisses before the door is even closed. The driver and aids asked if they could take him home with them since he's such a sweet boy. It's always nice to hear other people say what we already know: Bennett is the sweetest boy on earth!

Bennett's Big Adventure Benefit
Spaghetti Dinner, Silent Auction & Bake Sale

When: Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 5-7pm
Where: Concordia Lutheran Church (2501 Woodland Ave, Duluth)
Cost: $10 per ticket, or $35 for a family of 4 or more