Letter: Thank You for Supporting MEF Raffle

I would like to thank everyone involved in the MEF/flour + wine project, your teams and all the other people that made this fundraising initiative so amazing.. and amazingly successful!

The MEF, the students, teachers and administrators, will benefit in a different way, possibly from a stronger community belief and stronger community ties. We all hope to see MEF moving in a direction of strength and sustainability; I hope the new energy we created this year will propel a wonderful program onward and upward.    

We began this initiative with a goal of $5,000; and while some thought that was slightly out of reach, when we brought the raffle to a global audience, we not only reached our goal, but doubled it; bringing home $10,000 for the students and educators. We had patrons from all over the globe supporting the event. Ticket sales came in from places as far away as the Netherlands, Europe, Asia and South America. All I can say is.. WE DID IT! How amazing that we hit $10,000!!!

We at flour + wine are humbly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with such amazing and committed people. We can’t say enough at how happy we are to have been part of an event that supports and betters the children of not only our, but other communities as well. It does all our hearts good to know we were engaged in and accomplished, a possible life changing event for some... everyone’s hard work, energy, time, money, materials and resources translated into a wildly successful project!

However, it’s not over yet; we must create an awareness throughout the community that there exists such a powerful music program and how powerful MUSIC itself is! Hopefully in the years to come, fundraising efforts will result in bigger numbers, resulting in the children seeing more musical dreams come true!

Thank you specifically to Paul Marchese, Ellen Basset, Tiffany Berry and Sandy Georganas. The four of you were the bridge that connected everyone and made this project possible.

Thank you to all of our staff at flour + wine who contributed their skills and focus to help get the raffle “out there.”

Thank you to the all of the board members and volunteers at the Music Education Foundation for being an absolutely essential organization that is committed to music and our community’s kids. You have a wonderful group of members and volunteers!

Thank you to all of the parents and students who showed your support by purchasing tickets and volunteering your time.

Thank you to ALL of our local businesses that put up posters of the event and supported in any way they could.

Thank you to the School of Rock for jumping in blind and offering up whatever needed doing; you guys rocked in more ways than one.

Thank you to all of the people around the globe that supported this event by purchasing tickets. Your contributions made a big difference for music education in the lives of kids.

Finally, I would like to thank my brother Steve for being so wonderful with his time and so generous with his heart, for the students. He gave more than we could have asked for. His final donation, that put us at our goal of $10,000, was totally unexpected and another huge gesture of giving! Steve, from all of our hearts, THANK YOU!

THANK YOU!!!!!

MV

(Michael Vai)

flour + wine