Sharing the Dream Tour Continues…Milton, NY!

Jason Rogers and I continued our unnoffiicaly named “Sharing the Dream Tour” by visiting 700 students in several schools in Milton, New York today.   We had a blast and hopefully the chlildren did also!

The amazing Kathy Guarino set up our visit which took us to Milton Elementary school, where we spoke to about 250 K-2 students, along with the Arlington High School Fencing team.   

We shared pictures, demonstrated fencing (to huge cheers!), conveyed our messages of dreaming big, working hard and using your own personal strengths as well as a playing a very exciting game of Simon Says!  (250 K-2 playing Simon says definitely an adventure!)

We ended our day by talking to about 400 3rd-5th graders at Marlboro Intermediate School.   They are just begining a “reading challenge” where the teachers are motivating their children to read more everyday and hopefully we helped bring home that message!

The students of Marlboro Intermediate School

The enthusiasm of Elementary students is AMAZING!  I’ve never seen a more excited crowd watching fencing then the kids today! (Kids really love swords!)  I’m thinking we really need a Saturday morning fencing program to go along wiith those cartoons to really popularize our sport!

The Arlington Fencing Team

Special thanks to Principal Walsh, Principal Toombs, Assistant Principal Salpaugh and all the teachers we met today! You all are doing an amazing job with the kids and thank you so much for what you do everyday!

Open ’09 With Olympians Raises $4000 for Right To Play

New 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

Now, a few tips from our experience throwing this party (Somewhere Scott Buccheit is laughing at me as I write)

 

 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!

Open ’09 With Olympians: A New Years Eve Party hosted by Olympians Tim Morehouse and Jason Rogers for the Charity “Right To Play”

Tickets and More Information:
http://www.tenthousandfencers.com/open_09.php

Can’t Attend?
Please feel free to donate directly to Right to Play. No amount is too big or too small! Remember that all direct donations are tax deductible!

Click to Donate to Right To Play on Behalf of Tim Morehouse