Monday, September 28, 2009

The photo exhibit






Yo!
It's been a while since the last post. And there is a good reason for that...busy...busy...busy for the "7 Views" photography benefit and exhibit.

Where do I start? Lets start with the week before the exhibit.


The week leading up to the exhibit was probably one of the busiest weeks of my life. First off....thank you to Brian and Casie for all the help and support that week. Without the two of you I certainly would not have been able to get everything together.


The Monday before the exhibit I started a new job. That's another story for another blog. In short...I'm with an awesome company called Trulia. they are an online real estate search engine. An awesome company with great vision. They help people find homes and help real estate professionals connect with those buyers. I started work on Monday and with that I was back in the great American workforce. So, my days, were filled with dot com stuff and at night I was busy working with Brian and Casie on the event. All of the small things started to catch up with us like cutting cardboard backs for the pictures and inserting them into sleeves. It was all busy work but in the end the photos looked amazing, the programs were ready to go and the show was finally here. It was all a lot of 2am nights but it was well worth the work.


111 Minna, in downtown San Francisco, is the perfect place to throw a fundraiser, especially one that has an artistic element. The event space was perfect! Alfredo was working hard on the entertainment and his band's came through! The music was a great element to the party. Mike's poem was also such a great add to the party. His poem drew in a large round of applause and one of his friends even bought the photo that inspired the poem. Mike's friend, Mike, had his painting on display. It was also an artistic interpretation of the entire ride from Panama to San Francisco. I attached the photo above. The painting was auctioned off for $200 with the money going to the school in Jalapa.


Brian and I got to 111 Minna at 8am. It was fun setting up the photos for the show. Probably one of the coolest stories from that day came at 9am on Saturday morning. Michelle, the event planner for 111 Minna, noticed one of the photos. While she was looking at the photo she got on the phone to her sister. The photo is by Brian Kelleher and is of the punk rock band NOFX. Apparently, Michelle's sister is married to one of the guys in the band. On top of that....the guy in the picture is Michelle's brother in law! Brian took the picture of NOFX in a small bar back east. Its an awesome photo! What a great way to start off the event! Michelle called her sister and she came down to the event with some friends and put a $80 bid on the photo...and won it! Brian if you are reading this...you might like to know that your freaking awesome picture of the lead singer of NOFX is comfortably chilling at his condo in the SOMA district of San Francisco! hahahah!

All in all the event was an absolute success. About 150 to 200 people came through the doors at 111 Minna. The music was fantastic, the photos looked professional and everyone was in great spirits at the event. We raised around $3,000 in total and with that we hit our goal of $15,000. The IF which is the young professional club of the World Affair Forum co-sponsored the event and brought a large group of people. Poem's were read, stories were told but most importantly awareness was raised for children in need of help and a school is going to be built in Jalapa, Guatemala.

Plan's Regional Development Director, Kristina Miletic, also came out to the event to pass out a few flyers and meet some of the attendees at the event. She is a total trooper because she flew in that morning and had to fly out that night for an engagement. She brought down a ton of information on Plan and we were able to pass it out to the people that came threw the door.
There are a million thank you's to give out but I think I may save that for one special long thank you blog. but...for all those that helped make this event successful THANK YOU!!!!!!
Peace, Power and Pedal
Aaron

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