Open ‘09 With Olympians Raises $4000 for Right To Play
January 5, 2009New Year’s Eve was our latest endeavor into the New York City events scene with a party of our own design, the aptly named, “Open ’09 with Olympians” at Elmo’s Lounge.
- Counting down to 2009 with Richie…10,9,8,7…
With very little experience about what it takes to throw a cool party and sell tickets (why does everyone wait until the last minute to finalize NYE plans?!?!), we were in a bit over our heads, but in the end we learned a lot of valuable party planning lessons and it all came together with a packed house, a hip crowd and most importantly— we raised about $4000 dollars for the Right To Play charity!
- Steve (one of Elmo’s Owners) with Mo Rocca and me
The hilarious Mo Rocca, a long time contributor to Daily Show, was in attendance and while he chatted with partiers, Richie Rich’s dancing and revelry helped set a fun tone. In attendance were a number of Olympians including Judo champion and two-time Olympian Taraje Williams-Murray, Canadian swimmer Nikki Dryden and Olympic Silver and Bronze Medal winning diver Anne Montminy along with a packed house of friends that helped us bring in 2009 with a bang!
- Matt and a lot of girls
One good idea when throwing a party is to recruit folks with a lot of friends to help you host. We learned this lesson late in the game,(luckily we learned it!) but thanks to Alison Goldman, Eva Snopek, Ember Dahlvig and Jackie Gonzalez for bringing a crew of friends!
- Alison Goldman and her Crew
Another good idea is to make sure that the person you hire to work your door doesn’t get drunk and pass out on the job! Yes, our door man was passed out by 11pm and then proceeded to vomit. Let’s just say our door might not have been as well guarded as it needed to be!
- Our friend 2-Time Olympian in Judo Taraje Williams-Murray
And lastly, in the category of things I never thought I would be doing, at one point we had 50 women RSVPed and only 5 men, and we had to spend quality time trying to find men to come to our party! (Haha, I remember back in high school when I might have struggled to get 2 girls to come a party…times have certainly changed!)
MORE PICTURES! (You can go to guestofaguest.com to check out more pictures)
Special kudos to Geoff Welch who drove all the way from Boston to attend and Luz for working our door once our doorman went down!
[...] I am extremely excited to report that I am currently on an outreach trip with our favorite non-profit humanitarian group Right To Play (See link about our New Year’s fundraiser (http://timmorehouse.wordpress.com/2009/01/05/open-09-with-olympians-raises-4000-for-right-to-play/)!! [...]