Like I said previously, I am interning this semester at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan and as part of my internship I had been helping to plan this gala.
Well the big gala was last Thursday at the DeVos Place in downtown Grand Rapids and it truly was a "motivating and inspiring" evening. Attendees paid $150 a seat and were also encouraged to donate more once they were there. And why wouldn't they donate more? The Make-A-Wish Foundation is a wonderful organization that does so much good for so many sick children in Michigan.
I had been working with MAW in putting together this event for a few months. I mostly dealt with calling attendees and donors so I really had no idea about anything else, like the decor. The gala was under-the-sea themed and it was called Enchantment. There were tons of sand, (fake) coral reefs and fish, balloons as bubbles, a mannequin dressed as a suba diver hanging from the ceiling, girls dressed as mermaids, a giant clam, real boats "shipwrecked" in the venue, a wooden pirate ship as the stage, and a treasure chest.
The quality of the photos isn't the best. You would never guess that I have a pretty good camera, right? It was super dark in the venue and the flash made everything real washed out looking so I used some fancy "theatre" mode my camera had.
I was honestly blown away by how all of this came together. I was speechless when I walked in and saw the end result.
We also granted a little girl's wish for a puppy that night. She wanted an English Bulldog. So we got her an English Bulldog puppy! She was so happy. It was really cute!
The last two are the only pictures I had of me from the night. One of me in the bathroom (with my matching cell phone) and one of my boss, Cara and I.
I feel really lucky to have had the opportunity to be able to do something like this and to be able to work with these people. I really feel that I've learned so much more from this internship than just work experience. I had previously wanted to go into music or sports public relations but now I'm almost certain that I will end up in non-profit public relations or philanthropy.
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