Where can you buy a baseball themed birdhouse that stands 4 foot tall and weighs almost 50 pounds? How about a Jersey worn by Ichiro? Or a football helmet signed by Shaun Alexander? Or be a groundskeeper for a day at a Mariner’s game?
All these items and much, much more were up for bid at “An Evening For Hope” to benefit, Esperanza International. Esperanza was founded by former Mariner catcher and now broadcaster, Dave Valle, and works to provide microcredit and other necessary services in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
It was an evening of a lot of work for 15 volunteers from Symetra who helped out behind the scenes and in front of the stage — setting up all the Silent Auction items, laying out the Live Auction items for viewing, playing Vanna White and walking the Live Auction items out for bid, and many other necessary tasks needed to make this evening a BIG success for the Esperanza.
The time flew by as people unwrapped, set up, tore down, packaged up, and handed the valuable purchases to all the great supporters of the event.
Symetra volunteers helped Dave Valle raise $250,000 dollars in one weekend for Esperanza and the micro finance opportunities that money will create for the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
BUT WAIT!! It is even better because of the matching pledge from an organization in Oklahoma that agreed to match every dollar raised up to $400,000. Esperanza raised $500,000 this weekend!!!!
Everyone had a great time. Look for more from Symetra’s work with Esperanza soon. For more information, visit: http://www.esperanza.org/.
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