EYC Fundraiser - Denver - May 2019

Dinner at Morin

After taking a year off from hosting an in-person fundraiser for Empowered Youth in Cambodia (last year we held a virtual fundraiser), we decided to host another in-person event in Denver, this time at Ali's friend's house in Washington Park (a beautiful home with a large backyard).  The event was a huge success with us raising over $90K (our goal was $70K)!  And we got to catch up with quite a few friends!

We arrived in Denver on Thursday evening and showed up at the property where we were staying (one of the Wolff properties with a guest suite) to find out that our key did not work.  So, we got a room for one night at the Courtyard Marriott nearby and were able to check-in to the guest suite on Friday afternoon.

During the day on Friday, Keith first had breakfast with Greg and then visited the property and worked from there while Shawna worked out of the hotel.  That evening, we met up with Jodi, Ali, Sarah, Shikes, and Pagna at Morin where we shared some yummy dishes and caught up on travel and summer plans.

Shawna and Erin

On Saturday, we grabbed our usual breakfast at Starbucks and then walked around Wash Park for a couple of laps.  We also walked around the neighborhood, passing by our old house.  We went to Ali's house to help with some of the set-up and then returned to the guest suite for a quick nap and to get ready for the evening.  We showed up at the event early to help with last minute prep (e.g. setting out the food) and then started to welcome guests around 5pm.  We hired a caterer who passed around some hot appetizers while we also set out some dishes for people to serve themselves.  After socializing for a while, Jodi, Keith, Drew, Pagna and Ali all gave short speeches - talking about the value of EYC.  People must have really enjoyed it b/c we had to finally nudge people out the door around 8pm.  We helped to clean up and then went over to Ali's to debrief and celebrate with one more glass of wine.

Paga Giving His Speech

On Sunday, we walked around the park again and then met up with Patrick and Donell (and their very cute baby) for breakfast.  We wanted to go to The Cookery on Gaylord but the wait was an hour so we instead went to Fooducopia, which is now a full cafe (when we lived there it was part cafe / part grocery store).   We then went over to Chris and Athena's house where we had a yummy lunch of cheese & crackers, paella and strawberry shortcake.  Having had way too much food (but a great time catching up with friends), we then went to the airport and flew home.