Busy Week of Charity Events

This last week has been a busy one for Bill and me.  There was something going on practically every night.  We weren't home at all in the evening this week between the events we attended and going to have dinner with Beverly.

We started out our Monday with going to "Paws on the Patio" at the Hilton.  The Humane Society had a fundraiser going on there.  We stayed there for a little bit and then headed to La Bottega for dinner.  I had never been there before and Bill had only been there for lunch--not dinner.  So it was a fun night to explore a new restaurant as well.

Wednesday night we went to PIR to go to the Beaches Cruisin".  Beaches sponsors a Cruise-In there every Wednesday night and has for several years now.  We used to go when it was being held at the Pearson Air Museum but haven't gone since they moved the venue to PIR.  Bill went to work at the Children's Center booth.  He put flyers for donating in Ali Novinger's name in 500 of the cars that were there.  Ali is going to be "Pretty Woman" at the Glamorous Gams event the end of September and so she is trying to garner funds ahead of time toward her winning the competition.  I just went to look at cars and take pictures.  I love looking at some of those beautiful old cars--especially from the 40's and 50's.  And so many of them are restored to such beauty.  

The Glamorous Gams contestants are doing a lot of pre-event parties and events to raise money--they have really gotten into it in trying to win the competition but ultimately to benefit the Children's Center.  Bill and I had already attended "My Big Fat Greek Birthday" party for Tonya Rulli last month.  She wore a portion of her Wonder Woman costume that night.  Thursday night we went to another pre-Glamorous Gams fundraising event for Troy Van Dinter.  Nelson Holmberg sponsored a margarita party and silent auction at his home to go toward The Children's Center.  Troy is going to be Fred Flintstone at the big event and he was wearing his costume at the party.  He has already had a bowling party to raise money too.  We didn't go to it but I thought that was a great idea since the Flintstones were always going bowling.  Local artists have decorated mannequin legs and have them on display around town to advertise the event in September as well.  I got to see the one in the picture at the margarita party.

Switching gears from Children's Center events, we went to a Keiretsu Forum event at the Sego Herb Farm.  Kathy and Roger have this party at their home every summer.  It is always the same weekend around Kathy's birthday.  Bill doesn't really belong to any of the organizations that are invited to the event but he goes to some of their functions so he always gets invited.  It was a much bigger event this year--over 120 people.  It was held as a bit of a trade show with 10 entrepreneurs from Portland and Clark County having displays to show off their products.  Our friend, Steve Hix, who is a serial entrepreneur having already started In Focus and Planar Systems as well as six other companies, was promoting his new company, Circle Technology.  The product he has invented is a tablet based presentation package including software making the tablet its own secure encrypted WiFi hotspot enabling presentations to other tablets within 75-100 feet of it.  The application would be for sales presentations although I am sure there are plenty of other situations that it could be used in.

Sunday night we went to another Children's Center fundraiser arranged by Troy Van Dinter--a Britnee Kellogg concert at the Three Brothers Winery.  She has auditioned for American Idol in the past and plans to again.  We went to NW Best Fish before the concert to have fish tacos with Jeff and Julie and then we headed to the concert.  It was a wonderful concert--lots of country music that I could sing along too.  I was surprised to see that Justin Klump was in her band--but I have found that there is a lot of crossover among the music community in this area.  Britnee is also the lead singer for Five Guys Named Moe--another popular band in this area--so she has a few gigs going on as well. 

So it was a really busy week--but in a good way.