Ronnie Caesar, Norman Chenevert and Gene Baker
Standing ovations to my
favorite emcee ever, Ronnie Caesar,
and his sidekick, Norman Chenevert! When Bobby Campo told me he was building a
guitar and the decision was made to auction it off at our reunion, I tried to
envision the perfect auctioneer. Who had the "gift
of gab," the hustle, and the love for our teachers (or at least a huge
crush on Sister Ann, or Pistol Pete, as he calls her) to do the job? Clearly, it was Ronnie, and to no one's surprise, I'm sure, Ronnie was
totally at ease in his role. Thank you,
Ronnie, for working the crowd and sending our donations to the "Nun Fund" into the stratosphere! You ROCK!!!
Thanks, too, to Norman, our
announcer for the winners of the Silent Auction, and my pre-event advisor for
the Saturday schedule. Besides his
wonderful smile and easy laugh, Norman is such a sweetheart... when I got rattled I asked him for help,
and he was great... led me to the
table to eat, watched out for me, and later sat outside with me in that
beautiful Saturday evening weather with his arm around my shoulders. Just what I needed. (Not only that, but Norman's etiquette is impeccable... he'll lie and tell you the food you
cooked was wonderful no matter what!)
What took the original
"Jason's Jollies" five or more men to accomplish, Gene Baker did on his own! I mean, we surely missed Rodney, but Gene
did the crew proud! Thank you for your
very interesting interviews that perfectly segued into the presentation of the
BIG CHECK to Sister Ann. And thanks to George Tullier for his part in
presenting it. What an awesome finale
to our fund raising! (And Gene, please thank your sweet wife for me for the sweet words.... and prayers. She's neat!)
DEEP Pockets
When we started talking about
a reunion, and I was somehow "nominated" to work on it, I had two
reservations. The first being that I was
afraid of accumulating any debt in the planning stage (being retired and all),
and the second that I wanted enough help to reduce the chances of my going
stark-raving mad. (I'll not speak to the latter...
I had plenty of help, but whether my sanity was ever in check is a whole
other matter! LOL!)
When I sent out the first
survey I asked if you would be willing to donate some cash for those up-front
expenses.... And I promised anonymity
to those who did. So, I will not list
any names, but there were quite a few people who sent me money then and
later.... Some checks were as large
as $250 and others came in smaller, but equally important amounts. All came with lots of heart attached and notes to "use this as you see fit." Within a month of opening an account, I had
$850 dollars to work with.
Beautiful! And it didn't
stop... there were those of our
classmates who "registered" knowing full well they would not be able
to attend, and those whose plans changed at the last minute and never asked for
a refund, just saying "give it to the nuns." There
times, too, when classmates stepped in to help other classmates... and
that is still going on.
A huge thank you to each and
every one of you for all the donations, large and small.... As a group and individuals we have much to
be proud of....
After all expenses were paid, the total
donation to the retired
Sisters
of the Congregation of Divine Providence came to... $10,000.
Holy smoke (or maybe Holy Ghost!), $10,000!!! You all are remarkably, stupendously, fantastically generous. What a wonderful gift. I promise you that your gift will be well used for the sisters. In fact, it will go to Providence Trust where it will be invested to earn more. I certainly didn't expect anything like this. Many, many thanks!
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