It was finally the day, there were butterflies in my stomach and I had a whole load of nervous energy I needed to use up. The night before I had everything organised and in the right boxes, a final list (of course) of things I needed to do/pick up and made a load of tasty treats to sell. I was as ready as I ever could be and needed to get on.
First things first, a trip to Rooney’s Butchers on Eccelsall Road to pick up my raffle prize of fresh meat, a pile of sausages, steaks and eggs later, I move onto the lovely Sharrow and they had put together a beautiful hamper and wild and wonderful fruit, veg and even chucked in some cheese and chutneys – all delicately put together with ribbons and presented in a lovely box.
Next on the cards was a round trip to all my friends’ houses to pick up an array of cakes, biscuits, cakes, cookies, brownies and yes you guessed it more cakes… hum the trick now was to not eat any! Whilst I was doing this, I had people at home making posters and price lists, colouring pencils out and music on, I imagine my sister couldn’t have been happier.
So, I packed up the car with everything, including my willing helpers my sister Kathryn, my Mum and my boyfriend Chris… to the Riverside we go. Is that snow I can see?
An hour or two later the room is looking spic span, about 65 chairs had been squeezed in every space possible, walls brightened up with posters and information and I’d bought some gerberas in red and white for all the tables. They were my favourite addition to the room, gerberas are one of my favourite flowers anyway and the red and white is Dads team colours (Stoke City) – it was my way of having Dad there with us. We all settled in to a Riverside booth and had a late lunch/early dinner, lining the stomach seemed necessary.
As we left the pub the skies had opened and it was definitely sleet that was pouring from the skies, all is fine I thought it was only sleet, the rain part will soon melt it all and everyone will still make it. As we drove home the sleet definitely was turning into snow, but I was still convinced it would go away, it never sticks when I want it to, why would it now.
An hour to get ready and I was crawling the walls, anyone who knows me, knows I speak fast, in that hour I think I had clocked in at a least 1,000 words per minute and also where were Kathryn and Chris, they had gone to get cash and it was taking ages, did they not know I needed to go??? Looking outside the snow was, well definitely snow and was definitely sticking; they must just be taking it careful on the roads. Slowly but surely I was getting texts and calls from friends saying they couldn’t make it, taxies were refusing to pick them up from the height of some of the hills they live on and they didn’t fancy the 40 minute walk to the pub. Hum, I’d forgotten I was at the bottom of a very hilly valley, if we had snow, people up the hill probably already had an inch! Still, I was going no matter what, nothing was going to stop me – and yes, I was still going to wear my lovely black dress and red heals – alright I might have packed the heals in the bag, well I didn’t want the snow to ruin them now!
We eventually made it back to the Riverside, we went to the function room and awaited our guests – when I got there I was greeted with a lovely surprise from my big sister Andrea, she couldn’t make it as they had already had snow and instead when Kathryn and Chris had “gone to get cash” they had been and picked up some balloons on request from Andrea. 10 red and white balloons had been paired up and tied to the vases with the flowers and they looked just incredible.
The night couldn’t have gone better, despite the snow that continued to fall the room was packed full, every seat was taken, I couldn’t of actually fitted anyone else in, that snow I was cursing was still falling thicker and faster and had put a lot of people off, this worked in my favour as I would have been turning people away. At £2 entry per person (free raffle ticket included) it couldn’t have been a better deal, for that you got 60 questions, some music rounds and special bonus rounds which included me doing charades and Pictionary style show downs in front of everyone. My quiz master Nathan Webster was amazing, kept the crowd in check and kept it moving nicely. The cakes sold well, as did the chutneys and I am sure the raffle tickets were the bestselling item on the night. This was down to our expert sales techniques and offers you couldn’t refuse. Kathryn definitely would have won Lord Alan Sugars best seller, “Double the price, three times the chance” could be heard echoing around the room. A quick tally on the night and I’d raised an astonishing £320, my target was £200… so for a first event I couldn’t be happier!
People all began to disperse with some final cake and chutney purchases, with many words of “We had a great evening”, “when is the next one?”, “Can I have the recipe for…”. We could finally sit down and have a drink and relax – how we were going to get home we had no idea! Thankfully the Riverside said we could store everything there, so we just had to get ourselves home. We decided to walk, during the course of the evening about 4 inches of snow had fallen and so the walk home was a lot of fun, snow angels, snowball fights and running through untouched snow at every opportunity was a magical way to end the evening - wet feet and cold hands aside I had a huge grin on my face…
Losing Dad has been the hardest thing to get my head round and find I am often still trying to work it out… days like that of the pub quiz give me something to focus on and something so positive smile about in and amongst the sadness, I didn’t know how much work it would take to it do and I didn’t know if it would come to anything, but it did. Thank you to everyone involved everyone who made it through the snow and to Dad for giving me the strength to do it.
Oh and the final tally after selling the remaining cakes at work was a grand £507! AMAZING!
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Calling upon my beautiful friends I got myself some posters made by the lovely Paul Rudeforth and Christopher Green, picked up charity buckets from Rob Turner (Local Macmillan Representative), had a day of chutney making with Amy and Paul (I have never chopped so many onions in my life!) and went on a very successful raffle prize hunt with Tara Bhatia.
Along the way I learnt how to secure a raffle prize, how to make tasty chutneys and the basics on how to run a charity event, 3 things I didn't know before and hope to use them all again in the years to come. This being my first event, it was a steep learning curve with definite moments of panic, other moments of clarity and definitely some tears along the way – both happy and sad.
