As I’m writing this, Charleston is enjoying a “once in 200 years rainfall event” thanks to Hurricane Joaquin. Thankfully, we decided to throw our very first Toy Drive & Fun Fest event last weekend. We got lucky with the weather, had a ton of fun, and also hit the jackpot with all the amazing gifts that everyone donated. We don’t have an exact number yet, but our office now looks like this:
We had an estimated 250 attendees show up to The Art Place Studio to spend the afternoon playing on the jump castle, putt-putt golf, face painting, eating pizza and cupcakes, and winning prize give-aways.
We would have had a really tough time running things ourselves, but our volunteers made it possible. They all did an incredible job and many of them stayed well beyond their designated amount of time.
A huge thanks to our facepainters Sean Latif, Erin Matter, Heather Mirman, Kenna Steele, and Isabell. At first we thought we may have had too many face painters, but it didn’t take too long for there to be a long line of kids waiting to get their faces painted. It got so crowded inside that we decided to move the face painting station outside. These face painters kept cranking out design after design, and didn’t get a chance to have a break!
During the event we were selling tickets to the exclusive Belk Charity Sale and also gave away prizes. Thank you to April Alkis, Melissa Myers and Maddie Lytton who managed this for us.
Big thanks to Tricia E, who was volunteering for us for her 2nd consecutive week, she did a great job helping the kids with the putt-putt golf.
And a special thanks to Caleb Copper, our 3rd time volunteer, who was running around doing everything from applying tattoos, organizing the food, running to get us more face paint when we ran out, and helped us tidy up at the end.
Lastly, thank you to all the local businesses and organizers who helped make this an amazing first event, and of course, everyone who came and donated birthday presents. We know the foster children will love them.
Click these photos to enlarge:
