January 2002-April 2003: Behind the Weekend: Journey Past & Present and the Bammies Walk of Fame (part 8)

The JPP2003 Reception
Friday, April 25, 2003

Our cocktail reception wasn't scheduled until 8:00, so we had a little bit of time to recover from our hectic morning and afternoon. Back in the committee suite, we celebrated with wine and chocolate and babbled a bit for the video camera. The thought that kept running through my head was "We pulled it off." I had seen everything we'd planned unfold more or less as we had expected and was amazed that we had actually done it.

The reception went very smoothly. We set up tables for our silent auction items and a display of the two raffle items. Journey (and Journey-related) music was played over the PA, and the fans came in to sit back and spend some time visiting with each other and reliving the day. As has become habit at these things, I was the emcee for the evening. Everyone is their own worst critics, so I'm not going to dwell on all the things I should have said and done in that capacity (and believe me, there are many) but I had to laugh that every time I was planning to give my welcome speech, something interrupted the moment. First I had to make an announcement about the auction. Then Aynsley and Margaret Dunbar arrived and I had to introduce them. Then Michael Carabello and his girlfriend Rebecca arrived and I had to introduce them. By the time I was ready to give my welcome speech the evening was half gone and we had to start paying attention to the auction and raffle.

Then I got hijacked. I had just made an announcement about when we would be drawing for the raffle when Rob took the microphone and he and Tom Perez proceeded to thank the committee and present us with plaques of appreciation. I was stunned, as were my fellow committee members. We'd already received many many gifts and this was completely unexpected. Then, before I could say thank you on behalf of the committee, we were hijacked AGAIN. Julie Skene and Renee Ballentine ALSO had put together framed certificates of appreciation for our work. I had known in advance that Julie wanted to say something at the reception, but I had no idea what was planned.

Sufficiently surprised and remarkably thankful, I took the microphone again and turned what had been my welcome speech into a thank you speech. I felt it was important to recognize the people who had made it possible for us to keep pushing onward when we didn't know what we were going to do about a variety of issues that popped up on us. I honestly don't know if we would have been able to pull it all together if we hadn't had the constant encouragement of our fellow fans. The emails and messages we received while we were planning the event were inspiring. People were really looking forward to the event and we couldn't let them down.

Raffle winners Rob Rennert and Chris Waleszczyk

Soon it was time for our raffle drawings, and Jeff, having been away from a microphone for far too long, took over some of the emcee duties. I must say, he did a much better job than I as he can easily integrate his humor into what he is saying. Something must have been in the stars that night because when we did the drawing for the autographed leather jacked the winner turned out to be none other than our volunteer jacket model-Rob Rennert!
 
I'll have to admit, the committee was really thrilled that Rob won such a cool prize -- he did a LOT of work for us. Next up was the guitar that everyone was hoping to take home with them. We asked Deen's mom Kay to draw this grand prize and then we tortured the attendees by reading off the numbers one by one rather than the name that had been written on the back of the ticket! (Actually, there was a good reason for this too-it would have taken me twice as long to attempt to pronounce Chris Waleszczyk's last name!)

After more mixing and mingling and photo taking, we closed the silent auction and announced the various winners for the night. With all the incredible donations we received we were able to raise $1,000 for the Okizu Foundation. Way to go Journey fans!

The reception wound down by 11:00 and people scattered to the winds. The committee cleaned up the items we needed to take back upstairs and headed to our rooms for a much-needed drink and wind down time. It wasn't to last long though -- Leslie had invited a few people back to our room to visit. Darla, Mary Ann, and Emerson went back to their room and Cheryl, Leslie, and I visited with our guests. As tired as I was, I was the last one to fade out -- Cheryl and Leslie went to bed and I stayed up talking until after 2 in the morning! This was actually one of the best times for me -- throughout the day I had been rushing around making sure everything was going well and really hadn't gotten much of a chance to visit with anyone, especially the many people I hadn't met before.

Once everyone left and I crawled in to bed I was able to realize just what we had accomplished. Exhausted but happy I drifted off to sleep, but not before noticing Cheryl was muttering in her sleep. Ah, sweet dreams.