First – a HUGE “Thank You!” to the many friends and colleagues who supported Evan’s 10th Birthday Benefit Party with such generous donations.
Evan and Mom
I can’t tell you enough how happy he was to see the outpouring of genourosity in his name. The smile on his face, and in his heart, was priceless.
(He brings it up to my wife and I every now and then, at random times, “how cool it was to see all those awesome people donating” on his behalf.)
So, here’s a recap: The party was insane.
Honestly, I don’t know what the heck I was thinking by hosting the party at our house. A $400 party at the local bounce house, chucky cheese, or whatever is definately worth every penny. I know this now.
Why was it so crazy?
Well, having 35 nine and ten year old kids running amuck in your house is one thing. But, loading them up on a steady stream of pure sugar is like throwing gasoline on a fire.
You see, last year, for Evan’s 9th birthday party, I rented a cotton candy machine from Detroit Popcorn Company.
Cotton Candy Mess!
The cotton candy was such a hit last year, that I would have been murdered by a mob of sugar-starved children, led by Evan, had I not repeated the event.
So, again, I got the cotton candy machine. And, again, I set it on the front
porch since it made such a mess. And, again – I was making cotton candy for hours at a time, feeding the addicted children with their much needed drug. (What did I do wrong with this machine? Cotton Candy was flying everywhere!)
So, yeah – all the cotton candy made them a bit hyper. (But, they had a blast.)
I should rewind.
It didn’t start out so crazy. In fact, it was a little surreal when my wife and I walked into the family room to find every single child sitting down, silent, watching a DVD that I had made for Evan. This DVD is sweet! I made it using iDVD on my Mac a few weeks earlier, with a bunch of songs and clips from a funny show I used to love on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim: The Brak Show and Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
The kids laughed and sang along to various songs by Brak, like “I love you baby“, “I love beans” and “Driving down highway 40 in my big ol’ pick up truck“. (These links let you download the videos if you want ‘em…)
This was the calm before the storm.
Evan played guitar in the "Talent Show" during the Party.
Okay, I am exaggerating a bit here. The kids weren’t all that crazy, but, they were having a very good time and the entire neighborhood could hear the screams of kids playing and running around from inside my house. (My ears are no longer ringing.)
So, we had cotton candy, cheesy popcorn, buttered popcorn, cake, pizza, games, videos, dancing, and a talent show.
Yep, a talent show.
Several kids wanted to sing, dance, or play guitar in front of their classmates, while I and a panel of 3 girls judged them, American Idol style. (Everyone got positive remarks – nobody played Simon Cowell.)
And, when we were able to rope up the kids and keep them quiet for a moment, I had them all sitting in the living room floor, while I talked with them about the importance of philanthropy and how proud we were of Evan for donating his birthday to charity, and how proud we were of all of the kids for being so generous.
That was really cool.
The kids gave Evan a big round of applause, and a couple of them told me that they wanted to do the same thing for their birthday. They were inspired by Evan to donate their birthday to charity as well. (Freakin’ cool, eh?)
So, that’s it.
The house is back to normal, Evan is now officially 10 years old, and we delivered a car filled with quality groceries to the local food bank, plus $500 in cash. Also, we made a $600 donation to the Haiti children fund. Yep – his party brought in over $1,100.
Again – thank you for all of your help, support and encouragement for Evan.
Most of the kids at the party gathered for 2 minutes for this shot.
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