Bring Joy, One Penny at a Time Gala
This semester I am interning at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan and as part of my internship I have been helping to plan a gala.
According to the Make-A-Wish website, the gala will be "an evening that is sure to be motivating and inspiring! The Bring Joy, One Penny at a Time Gala promises to be an evening of magic and joy that celebrates our amazing wish children... Your presence will help bring joy to hundreds of wish kids across Michigan."
The gala is tomorrow night at the DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I have been working with MAW with this event for a few months now and I honestly had no idea to what scale this gala was going to be. I walked into the DeVos Place and I was speechless... completely awestruck. There are REAL boats to be suspended from the ceiling along with mannequins dressed as scuba divers. There is a giant "sunken" pirate ship as the stage. There is a giant clam that two girls dressed as mermaids will sit in. There are fountains. There are "shipwrecks" throughout the venue. There are huge (fake) coral reef decorations. I still can't get over it. The decorating of the venue just started this morning so I didn't get to see it all put together but I can only imagine who gorgeous it will look tomorrow.
Here are some pictures. Obviously nothing is in its right place or put together.
The white boat is the one that will be suspended from the ceiling and the wooden one next to it is the sunken pirate ship that will also double as the stage.
The green thing is the giant clam, home to the mermaids, but it is still packaged up. The orange stuff is pieces of the coral reef display that will surround the entire venue. There also will be an arch of coral that you enter in under. It's obviously not put together yet in this picture.
... more of the coral reef
These are what I spent all day monday making. These are the table center pieces. They are made out of the same "fake" coral reef and decorated with shells. In the center there will be a tall glass cylinder filled with water, a bubbler, colored lights, and possibly fish.
This isn't even a third of the entire venue. That is the scaffolding that will hold up the lights and the blue, ocean like tapestry that will cover 100% of the walls.
