Well our first Gala Auction/Dinner was a tremendous success, congratulations to Jann Smith and her dedicated committee who pulled off a wonderful evening and raised a lot of money … over $40,000 in fact! At one point in the evening $18,000 was raised in about 5 minutes with straight donations to the children’s program! I don’t think there was a CAC member in the house with a dry eye! Joe Jordan made an excellent MC and Carrie Hands, as usual, was a master at the auction. Both should be thanked if you run into them as they volunteered their time so enthusiastically. Dr. Natasha Ledan spoke very emotionally on her experience at the Chernobyl plant only 10 days after the accident. Our two interpreters, Marina and Olya were dressed in traditional costume and led the children in song. Nastya Hrashchanka sang two songs solo and was absolutely amazing … this girl can sing! Two of the children also spoke and did a fabulous job, Ina Seliukova and Iryna Barsukova.
“Brocknews” has posted a short video news item on the event which can be found here:
http://www.brocknews.ca/aug1dinnerauction.htm
The video is on the right side of the page beside the article, if you don’t see it you may need to download Adobe Flashplayer. You can find it here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
Thanks to everyone who helped and of course to all who attended.