Still stuffed from “lunch”

I’ve mentioned it before, but every year, our church’s youth have a Dessert Derby. It is the only fundraising they do…and that’s because they don’t need to do more. It’s just that effective. People buy tickets (for both the main Derby or for the Kids’ Derby held concurrently; there’s also nursery care provided), and that covers a good lunch, with salad, pasta, meatballs, chicken, bread, and coffee. Community and church members donate auction packages, ranging from entertainment or sports tickets all the way to a week’s stay at a condo in Hawaii; during the lunch, participants bid on the packages via paper slips collected by the youth, who also wait on the tables. Along with those auctions, special items, such as custom jewelry or teen-created items (this year they decorated chairs) are also auctioned.

After the meal, the desserts are presented. The men of the church compete to create the best desserts; this year, there were fourteen different desserts vying for the prizes, as judged by area chefs and by a panel of church members and teens. Each of the tables bid on their favorite dessert (without having yet tried them), and the winning table gets their choice of dessert. After that, roaming is encouraged, so you can sample as many as you want.

It’s a fantastic event, and, as I said, very effective. This year, in the course of about three hours, they raised over $40,000. I stand amazed. (And very, very full. I ate very little of the delicious lunch, saving as much room as possible for dessert, and I regret nothing! ) Also, I’m quite pleased to say that some of that money came from us, as we WON our auction package! Finally, after three years of going, we won something! Hee! It was five nights of babysitting, along with a bunch of certificates for free ice cream at Georgie Porgie’s. Hurray!

It’s eight o’clock, and I’m still not remotely hungry for dinner. Worth it.