It’s hard to believe how quickly time goes by! We’re finally cleaning up the mess from our 4th Annual “Oilers Rig Live For MS” fundraiser. This season’s fundraiser took place on Saturday January 21at The Pint Downtown. This was our first time hosting the event there, but I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be back next year.
We had about 70 people come out exclusively for the event, including a large group out to support a friend of theirs who had just been diagnosed with MS. It was good to put faces (and real names) to twitter handles, and it was awesome to see our readers out in the real world. It definitely helped that the Oilers curbstomped the Flames, because otherwise I’m not sure if people would have stuck around.
Where Does The Money Go?
We ended up raising about $2300 for the MS Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories, which is awesome considering we had a much smaller silent auction (no in-person Doug Weight autograph session) and we didn’t sell tickets ahead of time.
As in the past, we’re splitting the funds we raised this year.
- Half will be donated to the Really Long Run to end MS, an event that one of our writers, Sean Wingrave (@OwnMSDotCom1) participates in. You can view his website HERE for information regarding the run and other MS events that are going on.
- The other $1150 will be donated to the MS Leduc to Camrose Bike Tour, an annual event that our very own Dave Gordon (@rustyknuckler) participates in.
As you may or may not be aware, The MS Society is a charity that is near and dear to us at the Oilers Rig as two of our team members, Dave Gordon and Sean Wingrave, are battling the disease themselves.
The MS Society of Alberta ensures that no one faces Multiple Sclerosis alone. In communities across the province and the NWT, volunteers and staff provide information, support, educational events and other resources for people with MS and their families and work to change government practices.
This work – and that of MS Society funded researchers – is supported by donors, event participants, corporate sponsors, volunteers and staff from coast-to-coast.
We are proud to say that we’re a part of the group that helps support this wonderful cause.
Our Thanks To You
This event wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a number of people.
- Jason Hayes and Cameron Brown donated a pair of tickets to the Oilers/Kings game on March 28
- Cameron also helped us sell raffle tickets, 50/50 tickets and made sure that people knew about the silent auction in the back of the bar
- Darryl Randolph (CopyDarryl) donated 5 autographed 8×10 photos, and donated some cash to the event as well
- Pro-Am Sports gave us a heck of a deal on the autographed Connor McDavid jersey we raffled off. It was so successful, we’ve got ideas to do another
- Momma B (Smyth94ever) graciously donated a pair of tickets to the Oilers/Sharks game on March 30
- Our friends at OilersNation donated some brand new NationGear to the auction
- On top of hosting, The Pint donated $100 in gift certificates that we attached to a pair of tickets
I’d like to send a big thanks to Austin and Rick at the Pint. They were super accommodating and let us take over the entire back room of the bar with no questions asked. If you don’t already go there for Oiler games, you should. You won’t be disappointed.
Of course, we couldn’t have done this without the support of you, our readers. It was a lot of work to put together, but it was so great to see some of you, and hopefully nest time we can get an even bigger crowd out.
We’ve already got some plans to make our next event even better, as well as some other fundraising ideas between now and then.
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