Another Great Auction!
Almost 300 people joined in the fun during Green is Good, the We Care Arts 2012 Auction held March 16 at the Hope Hotel. Emcee Jim Bucher kept the crowd laughing, and auctioneer Charley Schuerholz led an exciting live auction that included such items as a trip to Disney World, fine art, stained glass, a gourmet dinner for ten as well as an opportunity to purchase RTA tokens for those who travel to us.
Catherine Myers, a successful alumna of We Care Arts, received a standing ovation for her powerful testimony about how participating in the We Care Arts programs changed her life. Calling the teaching artists devious and masters of deception, she described how they gently built relationships with her and encouraged her to connect with others.
"They never talked about my disability," she said. "They always treated me like a whole person." Myers is scheduled to graduate from Wright State University this spring with a degree in non-profit management. She added that she never would have thought this possible before her experience
with We Care Arts.
click images to enlarge
560 lbs of cookies! Wow!
Ginger snaps and magic bars, lebkuchen, macaroons and pfeffernusse, thumb prints and peppermint balls, buckeyes, spritz, and snickerdoodles were just a few of treats available for $6 a pound on Saturday December 3, 2011 at the We Care Arts Cookie Walk. It was amazing to see 560 pounds of cookies, all homemade with love and donated by our many supporters. Schools, businesses, churches, families and individuals all work hard in their kitchens so that we have lots of delicious cookies to sell. It takes our team of volunteers all day Friday just to put the cookies on platters.
And we stopped at 191 platters because we ran out of platters!
It’s a fun day on Saturday when we have a line of happy cookie buyers threading its way through our gift shop and gallery. You enter our main work area and the aroma of delicious baked goods hits you hard. Then you get your own cookie box, stroll among our many cookie filled tables and fill your box with deliciousness. The hardest part is having to decide which goodies to take home from our vast array of treats.
Supporting this sweets filled event (and taking home some goodies) was Ohio State Senator Peggy Lehner, Kettering Mayor Don Patterson, Tony Klepacz, Vice Mayor of Kettering and his lovely wife Joan and former Kettering Mayor Mary Lou Smith. Also helping us was Bill Duffield, Editor of the Kettering Oakwood Times, Sinclair Community College Vice President for Organizational Development Mary Gaier, who is also a member of our Board of Trustees, and Bill Heath, the owner of 10000 Pictures Frames in Kettering. Our corporate sponsors were DP&L, PNC Bank, Day Air Credit Union and Sinclair Community College. We wish to thank all the people who make this event a great success every year!
Cookie Letter
Donation Form
We had a great time last weekend at the We Care Arts Holiday Open House. Friday night was our annual Donors’ Night. We were pleased to have Tony Klepacz, Vice Mayor of Kettering with his lovely wife Joan, Linda Hoffman, Manager of Community Affairs for Vectren and Ginny Strausburg, Director at the DP&L Foundation. Some Art Therapy students from the University of Dayton came also, and entertained us with their musical talents and had an impromptu concert with some of our donors!
We want to thank these folks and the many other supporters in our community that make it possible for us to continue helping people with physical, mental and emotional disabilities.
On Saturday we had fun with our Make it and Take it projects. It’s especially great for kids to make holiday ornaments in whatever design they can imagine! With materials to include everything from paint and glitter to feathers and bells, we had a wonderful variety of ornaments created. It’s such a fun outing for the little ones.
“It was the best Style Show ever!
This was a comment we heard over and over. "The Artwork was the best ever" was another. These comments were made possible by the hard work of the entire staff and the Style Show Committee. And we want to thank the over 350 attendees who made this event a wonderful success again this year.
We did something a little different this year. We teamed with our community partners and offered artwork that was complimentary to the products they were providing. For example, we painted glassware that went with Savona Restaurant and Dove Chocolates. We painted teapots for Basically British. Many different kitchen items were made for Pampered Chef and Tastefully Simple. Our jewelry was a big hit and complimented Mary Kay Cosmetics. We hand painted candle items for PartyLite. Our animal friends were not left out since items just for them were sold next to Poochie Bath. Our regular fall hand painted and handmade items were also for sale. All bookings and some of the proceeds from all the vendors went back to We Care Arts also.
The fashions were again provided by JCPenney at the Mall at Fairfield Commons. They were simply wonderful thanks to Brandi Poole and all the models. Our models included Montgomery County Commissioner Judy Dodge, Vickie Giambrone, Vice President at Children's Medical Center, Tom and Helen Jones Kelley, head of Montgomery County Family Children First and Executive Director of ADAMHS, respectively, Tony Klepacz, Kettering Vice Mayor and Don Patterson, Mayor of Kettering, as well as volunteers and clients of We Care Arts.
Centerpieces were teapots donated by friends of We Care Arts. We sold them at the end of the day and we sold all but three! And the runway was adorned with beautiful lflowers from Ace Hardware Stores.
Mark your calendar for next year’s event.............
October 6, 2012 at the Mandalay!!!!!!
Thank you to Knollwood Garden Center for their continued support and sponsorship of this wonderful event. Knollwood donated the soil, flowers and some gift cards for sale at the event.
r />
Clients painted many flower pots. Some were painted with acrylic paint, others were glazed and still others were under glazed and then glazed. Designs were as varied as the methods. The flowers were planted into the pots by volunteers from Oakwood Florist and Generation Dayton volunteers.
By the day’s end we had sold all but three of the pots, all the flowers and many of the gift cards. Look for next year’s event. This was a good event and raised more than $5,000.
Knollwood Garden Center
East Dayton Optimist Club and We Care Arts again joined forces to provide An Evening at the Races. The Presidential Banquet Center held 150 guests as they bet their way to racing fun. Guests put money on the horse of their choice to win for $3 each and we laughed at the crazy names given to the horses and jockeys by their sponsors.
WCA painted and provided the piggy banks for the $25 winner awards, the desserts and sold half the tickets with East Dayton Optimists hosting the event and selling 50/50 tickets.
What a fun way to make money for two worthy causes!
click images below to enlarge
Our largest fundraiser of the year had a 50’s theme. Staff came dresses in costume and pictures could be taken by two different professionals. Over 350 guests stopped to have their picture taken at the 50’s cardboard cutout provided by Schuerholz graphics.
The music was wonderful with a hula hoop contest and a swing teacher from Arthur Murray on hand to provide the needed advice.
The dancing was as vigorous as the bidding on the live and silent auctions. A request was made for individual donations to be put to the purchase of the smoke detectors in our Berkeley center. A generous donation from Mark and Joni Light make the entire project possible.
When all was said and done We Care Arts raised $45,000 for programs. What a wonderful time!!!
One of our Auction sponsors, James Free Jewelers, along with Roberto Coin,
generously provided a stunning pair of diamond earrings valued at $2,800 which
was raffled off at the Auction.
A delicious way to have a fundraiser!!! Generous people from all over the city provided the most wonderful looking, smelling and decadent cookies we have ever seen. On Friday the facility began to have this absolutely wonderful aroma of handmade holiday and family favorite cookies.
Early Saturday morning the line began to form for the cookies by the pound. We had wonderful gifts to sell too. The day was fun and wonderful. What a great way to celebrate the holiday…. cookies, friends and special gifts. Don’t forget to put this event on your calendar next year……December 3rd, 10:00.
|
