Never Too Late for a Great Story - Million Dollar Dinner
At a Zone function in Philadelphia it was suggested to then - DG Greg Coldwell that perhaps District 7820 could host a Million Dollar Dinner in support of the International Rotary Foundation. After returning home and consulting with then DGE Stella Roy and PDGs Tom McCaughey and Duncan Conrad, Greg took the position: "We can and will do this".Million Dollar Dinners are a fairly new concept that the Foundation conceived to support its drive to build TRF's Permanent Fund to $One Billion. For this campaign, it was decided that contributions since July 1, 2012 (beginning of Tom's DG year) would be considered as "new" contributions.
With the enlisted help of Carolyn Ferguson, the Zone 24 Major Gifts Officer, plus Greg, Tom, Duncan and Stella the wheels were set in motion. At first things went slowly but momentum built. The end of September 2014 revealed a stellar response, the goal had been reached and by the time of the ‘dinner’, October 1st, 2014 at the Old Ashburn Golf Club in Halifax, the goal had been substantially exceeded.
Over 40 District Rotarians had become new major donors and were invited to attend. Many others had purchased tickets for the night. Guest speaker for the evening was RI President-Nominee John Germ from Chattanooga whose appointment had become official that very day. He will be a great RI President (in Elva's DG year - 2016-17).
Attendees from our club included Elva Heyge, Doug and Joanne Hill, Phyllis and Wally Jarvis, Greg and Linda Trefry and Joop and Susan Ueffing (Susan also sang a closing duet with Rachel MacLean) Members of other Valley clubs also were in attendance.
It was truly a great evening; Greg, Tom, Stella and Duncan had cause to be extremely pleased, and they were. The amount on the cheque ( $1.569 million) became outdated that night. Carolyn reported later that paperwork for another $40,000 in donations had come in during the evening.