The weekend finally arrived! On Friday, we headed to Wilbraham to get ready for The First Annual Brad Pinney Wine Tasting and Silent Auction. And, I am proud to say the event went off without a hitch!! We had an amazing night, with 118 guests and over $8,000 raised for the Melanoma Foundation of New England! SO many of Brad's friends and family came out to celebrate his life and support this cause in his honor. With over 20 different wines, samples from Opa Opa Brewing, tons of prizes, awesome food, a delicious cake from Cordis Confections and jazz piano from our good friend Dustin -what could be a better way to spend a Saturday night??
A HUGE Thank You to all of our vendors, donors, guests and friends who helped make the night so special. Thanks to my favorite gals, Ashlee and Jori, for working the door. You girls rocked it!
I think my favorite part of the night was standing back and watching guests and old friends reunite. To see people sipping wine, chatting, laughing and catching up was exactly what Brad would have wanted.
Hosting this event only reinforced how important it is to have a strong support system in life. This was something that Brad was good at and passionate about - creating a community of friends and family for support. It was so nice to have my parents and sister in Wilbraham for the big night. We had a sweet Lasagna dinner (thanks Chris)and for the first time, I felt like my two families were together at once.
So today, as I ran my 14 miles, I snapped the "Entering Wilbraham" sign above. I finally understood why Brad had lived in Wilbraham all his life - the amazing people and the strength of the community. And when I entered the house, exhausted after 2 hours of running, I was greeted by applause from 12 family members having lunch in the living room. Just another reason why I know Brad is definitely around..the support of family! =)
1 comment:
You're amazing Nat! So glad to hear the fund raiser was a huge success :)
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