Back in August our wonderful volunteer Eddison suggested we have an event in Sydney. In October!😳 I told him he was mad. IT’S AUGUST! There is no way that there is enough turn around time and it’s our first event since Covid and I’M NOT READY..
But, he is such an amazing volunteer and is an enormous help to me/Rafiki.. so I considered saying yes, but then remembered I would have to leave my room. BUT then he tells me it is going to be his birthday so how can I deny the old fella. He had convinced me.
So for almost the next 2 months, we worked on it together and he copped quite a bit of abuse from me every time I remembered I was required to leave my premises and people. (IYKYK)
Fortunately, there were so many supportive people who were getting in touch to offer their support in one way or another. Many we hadn’t spoken to since before Covid who were excited to see us making the move to start our events again.
We had more Rafiki Mwema volunteers/board members at one event than ever before, it was so great to meet a bunch of people that I have been working online with over the years.
Arriving at the venue was quite something. It was more spectacular than in the photos and the staff at the Tearoom QVB were very accommodating. Shoutout to Aiden who was there to fix any issue that arose at any moment. The customer service was next level.
Queen Annaliese arrived early to receive her brief for the MC role and even with all that she has going on in her life, she nailed it. Completely nailed the job and obviously became best friends with Prada Clutch.
The Tea Rom was stunning and I believe the food was delicious, not that I ate. I was too busy trying to take a full breath over in the corner of the room. When Prada arrived, she ruled the venue. What an amazing presence she is, she was hilarious, rude and stunning. I can highly recommend her for an event.
Thank you to all of my Rafiki team who are always present to help in ALL the ways.Thank you to the sponsors, old and new. You were all so supportive with your prizes, purchasing tickets, gathering tables of people to attend etc. We sold a record amount of Raffle tickets at the event and ran out for the FIRST TIME EVER 👏👏
Having our amazing friends, supporters and corporate Sponsors FullCRM in the room and meeting many of them for the first time was a real highlight for me. I have been working side by side with many of them for years and the work they have done for us to date is hard to explain.. If that wasn’t enough, close to the end of the night, the team came up to me to let me know that all staff members at FullCRM are given 3 days a year that they can donate their time to a charity of their choice. All of them have completed 1 day already (most of them have given this to Rafiki 😬) and they all agreed that they would like to give their 2 days left to help Rafiki with all things Salesforce/Marketing. This might not sound like much when you read this, however, it equates to $92,000 AUD !!! which means we are now able to get a huge amount of things done to our computer system that we have been trying to get through and they can now set us up with our marketing system. We always aim to get the majority of the funds raised to Kenya and have the smallest allowance for our running costs. Which is why I work day and night 😩 and our team of volunteers put in so many hours. What FullCRM can now do for us is beyond anything I can explain here in this post. It was the most fantastic surprise and this in itself made the entire evening, the anxiety filled weeks leading up to it and the stress of leaving the safety of my home/office all worth it. Over and over again. I remember my life before FullCRM came into it and let me tell you, I am a better person and Rafiki Mwema is a much more professional/functional charity because of this incredible team. It’s not too early to say I love you, is it? 🥰
I would like to list below the other sponsors of the event who helped us with prizes for our incredible sold out Raffle 😱🎉
Eco Tan, LoobyLou, Smoke & Mirrors Beauty, Vine Apparel, Roxlox Hair, Idea Athletic, Burge Family Wines, Opera Bar, Pejayo, Nique Jewllery, Pav Spencer, Drawn Upon, Reer Endz Underwar, Martinette Photography and all of my Rafiki Warriors, including the birthday boy himself, Eddison.
We are excited to let you know that thanks to all of you wonderful people, sponsors and Rafiki Warriors who purchased a ticket and came along to our first event since Covid, the final amount raised on the night of Bingo Balls for a Cause 2022… was $9,239.96!!!
Along with the donation for work hours from FullCRM of $92,000 and the many, many new friends and supporters we made, we are beyond thrilled with how the night went and I think I can finally say … ‘Great idea, Eddison. You are forgiven.. ‘ His reply, ‘Let’s do another one!’ 😬
Related tags: Rafiki Charity
