From Paul Shane

Greetings Friends:

I want to begin by taking a moment to express my deep sadness regarding the passing of Ken Metz. I will miss the "smile in his voice and the joke on his tongue greatly in the days ahead.

Next I would like to thank everyone who helped with the convention and our first Dining in the Dark event together. The multiple moving parts that had to be greased and maintained to put on these events successfully, and simultaneously were enormous and we absolutely could not have done it without you, my "behind the scenes unsung heroes!"

A convention report appears later in this issue of the BC. We benefited from one hundred eighty-eight community volunteers who dedicated over one thousand five hundred hours of time, which is equivalent to approximately thirty-five thousand dollars in in-kind donations to the CCB.

Dining in the Dark went very well and opened a lot of doors to future relationships for the CCB. The event made over twenty-five thousand dollars and was attended by one hundred and seventy-five people. It was financially supported by six corporate sponsors, one private family, and numerous other people who made in-kind donations to the cause. We are still working on final figures, but we think the event cleared at least $2,500. This is excellent for such a first-time effort, and this event should raise much more money next year as the signature effort in our Major Gifts campaign. Finally I want to thank Judy Wilkinson and the CCB Board of Directors for their support of Dining in the Dark and the convention. Judy, as Board President, truly led by example by single handedly raising ten thousand dollars in convention sponsorships and nine hundred and fifty dollars for Dining in the Dark. She then went a step further and spent six thousand five hundred dollars of her own money at the auctions. All told, Judy "gave or got" seventeen thousand four hundred and fifty dollars in support of this year's events. Not bad Judy, not bad at all. Now that we know what you can do, we of course expect more next year.

Approximately ninety-eight percent of the CCB Board of Directors financially contributed to support Dining in the Dark. This is HUGE!! I have been putting on events for over twenty-five years now, and the largest Board contributions that I have ever experienced was around eighty percent from an organization with about ten times the budget of the CCB. Special thanks to Sarah Harris, Fresno Chapter President, for chairing the event committee, recruiting a table sponsor, and for sharing her story, which resulted in five thousand dollars in donations to the CCB in five minutes. Special thanks to Frank Welte, San Francisco Chapter President for contributing to the event script. Frank's contribution insured a positive and empowering atmosphere for all attendees and kept all aspects of the event aligned with the vision and mission of the CCB.

We still have a long road ahead of us, but I can confidently state that our feet are solidly of the pathway to a long-term prosperous future for the CCB.