Only In Bolinas Fundraiser - A success!
On Saturday, May 18 we held our major fundraiser of the year at the Peace Barn. Funds made from this event will go toward our two-year capital campaign; Homes from the Heart and will be used to help fund our new projects. We are thrilled to announce that we netted close to $90,000, which we feel was a huge victory, the weather was not in our favor, but people still showed up and showed their support. This event was extremely heartwarming because of everyone who helped make it a success.
Over 20 local residents donated goods, services and experiences to our auction, and another 20 helped as volunteers and hosts. Over 40 people made donations through our auction. We also had some champions at the end of the night help us battle the rain in what ended as quite an adventure. After hours of torrential rain during the entire event, the musicians and caterers parked alongside the Peace Barn to load up at the end of the night and quickly found themselves completely stuck in the mud. Ben Lowrance (one of the beloved Bolinas School bus drivers and our shuttle driver for the evening) joined the others to try and help get these vans out of the mud. Mickey Murch was tracked down and came right over with his tractor and successfully pulled the musician and one of the catering vans out to freedom. A short while later, once Mickey was gone, we all realized that a third van was stuck. Mickey couldn't be reached this time, AAA was contacted to no avail, along with some other people. We were all racking our brains trying to determine who we could call at 10pm on a rainy Saturday night. Then Mirta Guzman had the brilliant idea to give Hector Mora a call. He was there within minutes! Hector was able to pull the van out - cheers among all the wet and tired caterers and remaining cast of characters erupted! Though the mud was relentless and did cause further issues, we were amazed by the willingness to help our neighbors and friends showed us.
This is what community looks like, everyone coming together in all forms to help make a difference and help the greater good. We are so proud of Bolinas on a daily basis, but this evening and through the planning for this event, we got to witness moments over and over again that were reminders of how special we have it here in Bolinas.