By Suzanne A. Marshall from the February 2018 Edition
On January 18, 2018, the local community, foreigners, expats and Mexican amigos came together and sold out the ballroom at the beautiful Tesoro resort hotel. The Joyful Hearts Founders Gala was a partnership of many volunteers who were given one month to plan and organize the event. Next year’s event will be even better with this experience now in hand.
Aside from ticket sales, the event raised funds with the means of a silent auction, live auction and ticket sales for door prizes. There was an unbelievable collection of artwork, ceramics, textiles and hand-crafted jewelry for silent bidding. The live auction included a fabulous fourday condo stay in beautiful New York, in the heart of the city, near Central Park, Museums, Broadway, etc. Golf packages were also on the agenda as well as various donations from our local restaurants.
While Gustavo and his trio provided beautiful dinner music, the guests milled about the silent auction tables bidding on the ample array of lovely donations. During this time, guests were invited to commence enjoying a fabulous dinner buffet that presented a selection of mouth-watering salads, meats, fish, pasta and desserts. The food was truly delicious and the hotel did a superb job of hosting the event. There was no shortage of helpful staff in the ballroom and all needs were quickly and courteously met.
This inaugural event was borne of the need to support a shelter for abused women and girls. They are in need of a safe rehabilitative environment where counselling and education will help them evolve their lives into strong confident young people, able to function in the community and to live out their lives as normal, happy human beings. An admirable goal.
The ballroom was filled to capacity for the Joyful Hearts Gala
at the silent auction.
The audience was completely engaged by the story of one brave young woman, who stood in front of the crowd and told her heart wrenching story with the help of an interpreter. I will never forget how brave she had to be in order to do this with the dignity and control needed to tell her incredibly sad and painful story. She is doing this to help others who have, and are, suffering the same dreadful experiences. She received a thundering standing ovation from an audience overwhelmed by emotions.
Following the closing of the buffet dinner and live auction, the crowd was treated to a wonderful performance by Frances Koll who took us back through some of her earlier days as a young budding actress and singer and sang some beautiful renditions of a few great old tunes. It was a great performance and a generous gift to the foundation.
Congratulations to the many volunteers who worked against a daunting schedule to fulfill the mission of this event!
you can reach Suzanne A. Marshall at suzanne@manzanillosun.com
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Suzanne A. Marshall hails from western Canada and has been living the good life in Manzanillo over the past 8 years. She is a wife, mom and grandma. She is retired from executive business management where her writing skills focused on bureaucratic policy, marketing and business newsletters. Now she shares the fun and joy of writing about everyday life experiences in beautiful Manzanillo, Mexico, the country, its people, the places and the events.
