I Get a Good Feeling!!!

"Ohhohh sometimes, I get a good feeling".  That was the song of the South High Marathon Dance this past weekend.  It is a favorite of Keely's so she was thrilled to watch the dancers at opening ceremonies.  We will forever be connected to the SHMD, they changed our lives and helped give my Beauty a voice.   We were recipients just 2 years ago of this amazing act of charity our high school students have carried out for the last 36 years.

This year our students danced and raised funds to the tune of $489,716!  Let me say that again

FOUR HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED SIXTEEN dollars. 

It astounds me that our small working class community without any large local industry pulls together to get it done.  This community does it again and again, year after year.

This year we finally got some wide spread and long overdue national attention for what our kids do. Huffington Post article

This picture shows the totals raised for the previous four years... nothing to sneeze at either.

The school is open to the public until 10:30pm Friday night and reopens at 6:30am Saturday morning.  There is a snack bar, ice cream sales, face painting, airbrush tattoos, a silent auction, a live auction and raffles including a 50/50.  All of which donate their proceeds back to the dance.

We go to the school and do it all. We purchase merchandise and ice cream.  We bid on the silent auction and buy 50/50 tickets.  This year we had a little marathon magic and I was one of the 15 50/50 raffle winners.  It is nice that they split the pot into prizes of $500 so that more people have a chance to win.  Yes, folks this year the 50/50 brought in a total of $15,000.  $7,500 went to the dance and the rest to prizes.  

Sunday we picked up my prize.  We watched the live feed of closing ceremonies from home on Saturday night so I knew I won! It was all I could do not to run up the school then, but I held off.  So, Sunday, pick up the prize, I opened my envelope and..... 

$5 dollar bills!!!! 20 of them.  

Now if you have been following along you will know that I have been working on my $5 project.  I have been very faithful in my resolution to save every $5 bill I get, and I have not tried to work around by asking for ones as change.  Any five goes right in the envelope... clearly someone is testing my resolve. My total for January and February was 18 fives.  After March 3rd we now have 39 fives.  20 from my raffle and one I got back in change at the hockey game concession that night.