On Saturday night a group of friends and I went to a very enjoyable and by all indications hugely successful fundraising banquet for a national organization at Kennett's Red Clay Room. The place was packed; we had to park across Cypress Street.
The organizers run these banquets all over the country and have fundraising down to a science. With remarkable efficiency they cleaned out our wallets. They were raffling off all kinds of cool items, at $10 or $20 a ticket. An envelope circulated at each table, and at the end of the evening if your table number was picked and you had contributed, you got a very nice prize. There was a 50/50 raffle (the total was $850), at 12 tickets for $20. Simply to enter one raffle for some high-end items, you had to buy a $100 ticket package.
All these different "games" were very confusing to us novices at first, but with the help of old-timers we figured it out and spent freely.
The official part of the evening opened with the Pledge of Allegiance (everyone looked around, searching for the American flag) and a blessing, and then the law-enforcement officers and veterans in the crowd were asked to stand up for a round of applause. (An officer from a neighboring municipality was sitting at the next table and I hooted at him until he stood.)
The announcement of the raffle winners was lots of fun. The emcee would draw the winning ticket and announce the number, and a few seconds later you'd hear shouts and clapping erupting from the winner's table. We had two big winners at our table, including a fellow who decided to attend the banquet at the last minute. I won only a pocket knife emblazoned with the organization's initials. But it's a very nice pocket knife.
The dinner was very tasty -- the waiters brought around salads, and then we went through the buffet line of meatballs, chicken, roast beef, ziti, green beans and carrots, and roasted potatoes. I was impressed with how quickly the crowded room was served.
I really enjoyed socializing with the people at our table. Three of the people discovered that they keep horses and chickens; they were set for the evening conversation-wise. Two women were comparing notes on their yoga practice. One of my table-mates is a supervisor in a northern Chester County township; I wanted to gossip a little with her about politics but never got the chance.
After dinner was the live auction, conducted by a tall guy wearing a black cowboy hat. He had to chide the audience (not just our table, I should add) several times for making too much noise. The bidding was lively on a few of the items: A red, white and blue guitar autographed by Ted Nugent sold for $550.
I was amused to watch the scene at a neighboring table: a woman was shooting daggers at her husband for getting caught up in the excitement and bidding way too much money for an oversized cooler that he could have bought at Cabela's for a whole lot less.
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