Feeding the Hungry and Keeping Hearts Full
The Gathering’s Mardi Gras "Fat Tuesday" was a Huge Success.
If we look at the religious meaning of Mardi Gras, this day is centered around indulgence; it’s the last hurrah before Lent. Mardi Gras is a time to feast, and freely celebrate before having to abstain from luxuries during Lent.
The Gathering celebrated Mardi Gras with an evening of merrymaking in honor and recognition of our meal guests and those who support our mission. Over 100 friends of The Gathering indulged on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, at The Ivy House. Guests enjoyed dinner, music, games, a silent auction, raffles, awards, beads, masks, cookies, and lots of fun-while raising money to allow us to feed those who would otherwise go hungry or without.
There are seven main Mardi Gras symbols. They are Mardi Gras parades, beads, colors, Mardi Gras throws, masks, the fleur de lis and king cakes. The Gathering’s parade was the line of folks entering the facility, all of the nametags were attached to beads and there were beads at the tables and beads for purchases – beads were everywhere, gold, purple and green was scattered about the room, doubloons were strewn about, and the room was decorated with fleur de lis, and instead of king cakes we had beautiful, customized cookies!
One of the reasons we chose to host a Mardi Gras fundraiser has to do with the symbolism of the colors purple, green and gold. Purple means justice, green means faith and gold means power. At The Gathering we walk in faith to achieve our mission, we fight for justice and work to empower our meal guests. The gold, purple and green are a natural fit for the work of The Gathering!
We honored longtime supporters of The Gathering during our program; Michelle Mooney received the Distinctive Trailblazer award, Mel and David Johnson received the Individual Champion award, and Komatsu received the Corporate Advocate award. Click on the link below to watch the video of the awardee interviews.
Michelle Mooney 1st Executive Director – Lyn Hildenbrand current Executive Director
We are thankful for our event sponsors; Flambeau Sponsor; Komatsu, Doubloon Sponsors; Hupy and Abraham, Joan & Todd Smasal, Mel & David Johnson, John Hickey and Lyn Hildenbrand & Malcolm Martin, and Beaded Sponsors; Town Bank, Brice Cohey Consulting LLC, Christine Ebert, Michael & Ginny McBride, and Judy Young!
Ms. Andrea Williams, our emcee for the evening did an outstanding job facilitating the evening’s activities while engaging our guests! “Let the good times roll!”
All of our vendors provided awesome service as well as discounted prices for their services - and for that we thank them, Baked Dreams; catering, Edible Impressions; customized cookies, Marisa Hernandez-DeWindt; caricature artist, Sacred Rhythms; divination readings, and ShutterBooth; photo booth. The Smooth Jazz Duo of Mike DeRosa and Warren Wiegratz provided us with outstanding music all evening, at no charge!
The wine pull and the gift card pop sold out, all of the silent auction items were bid on and paid for, and the 22 raffle items were awarded to 20 lucky individuals. The photo booth was a hit as were the Divination Readings, and the caricature drawings had a line all night long.
There was an appeal towards the end of the evening to raise funds for our Ascension mealsite that was severely damaged in a chemical fire on November 3, 2022. We lost everything that we had at Ascension because of the toxicity of the chemical fire. We have continued to serve our meal guest out of a door in the alley behind the church, by preparing meals at our Running Rebels meal site and transporting them to Ascension for meal service – once meal service is over all of the dirty dishes are transported back to Running Rebels to be washed and put away until the next time we serve at Ascension.
The Gathering’s loss amounted to $88,000 and our insurance provider reimbursed us $34,000 leaving us with a $54,000 deficit. We raised $7,000 that evening, and a guest has offered to provide us with a significant challenge/matching gift to help us raise the rest of the money needed to restore the kitchen at Ascension – if you care to donate to the Ascension Appeal please click on the link below, all gifts will be matched up to $10,000.
We would like to say ‘Thank you’ to our evening’s volunteers, without whom we would not have been able to pull the evening off. Thank you to The Gathering Staff and Board, and to everyone who attended and made our First Annual Mardi Gras a smashing success!!
