Luck O' the Ecuadorians

Greetings, Starfish supporters! This week, we'd like to share one of our current campaigns: Luck O' the Ecuadorians.

This St. Patrick's Day, we invite you to raise a glass to our students in Ecuador and contribute just $7 to their educations. Because it costs $1 per day to support a Starfish scholar, your $7 would pay for an entire week! $30 would cover them for a month--and so on.

We know that St. Patrick's Day is a time for fun and lively festivities. But we'd also like to offer it as a time to give back. We hope you will consider gifting the cost of one St. Patrick's Day drink (or any other item) to our students. It'll brighten their days as much as any leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

For more information, please visit our event page or website.

Our Annual Benefit Dinner: A Silent Auction Preview

Hello Starfish supporters! Today, I'm writing to tell you about our Evening for the Stars benefit dinner on Saturday, April 18. We're holding the event at St. Pius X Church in Baltimore at 7pm and we sincerely hope you will join us! The dinner will feature any number of delights including music, a raffle, door prizes, and delicious Ecuadorian food and wine. We will also have a silent auction which will feature a number of unique items including the following:

Peace birds!

Your much needed Starfish gear!

This Harold Feinstein umbrella and other donated items!

Paintings and other art from Ecuador!

This gorgeous alpaca shawl.

Tickets are $35 for adults and $25 for students and can be purchased here. Proceeds directly benefit our operations in Ecuador--including providing funding for our scholars!

Thank you for a successful #GivingTuesday 2014!

We owe a huge THANK YOU to all of you for your support this past #GivingTuesday!

For those who are wondering, Giving Tuesday is the non-profit world's answer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (this year December 2nd) - charities, families, business, community centers, and students across the world came together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give!

According to the United Nations Foundation (one of the co-founders of the Giving Tuesday movement) more than 26,000 partners participated this year with civic initiatives, fundraising campaigns and volunteer work.



Starfish has participated for the past 3 years, since the start of this initiative.  This year we participated by hosting happy hours and dinner events across the U.S.!  16 Starfish volunteers & supporters in MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, PA, MD and NE combined to host a total of 10 events.  Friend of Starfish organized happy hours, dinner events and more while promoting Starfish to their friends, co-workers, neighborhoods and community in hopes of spreading awareness and raising funds for Starfish - and they sure were successful!


We are excited to announce that so far a total of $4,072.15 has been raised from these events and other supporters on Giving Tuesday.  In the coming weeks we will have a final tally to share with you.

If you still want to join in on the fun, you have one last chance - tomorrow - Friday, December 12 from 7-10pm at the Gin Mill on 81st & Amsterdam in Manhattan!

Thank you!!!

 

An Evening for the Stars...CT style!

Beth & Jenn with former Starfish volunteer and photographer for the night, Maria!

A few weeks ago, we held another successful, "Evening for the Stars," this time in Windsor Locks, CT.  For the third time now, friends of Starfish gathered together for a night of good food, great company and a chance to learn a little bit more about our programs.  

Delicious buffet dinner

The night started off with some social time to browse the silent auction items and participate in a 50-50 raffle.  This year's auction not only featured several items from Ecuador, but also many local products.  In total there were over 35 items up for auction!

Auction Items from Ecuador!

Once all of our guests had arrived, we sat down for a delicious meal of rice, beans, enchiladas, chicken & more.  We shared with our guests about the need for Starfish and shared some of videos of our students. 

Guests Nadia, Joe, Matt, Rachel, Liz, Alyssa, Jenn & Jeff

As dinner was winding down, we had one last call for the silent auction before our keynote speaker, Don Awalt, gave a heartwarming and thought-provoking reflection on his recent trip to visit Starfish in Guayaquil.

Don during his reflection

All in all, it was a great night to share with friends, and a very successful fundraiser.  Between ticket sales, auction, raffle and general donations including those received from friends who could not attend, we raised 10% of our total budget for the entire year in just one night!

Guests Gabi, Julie, Shane, Nicole & Marcus

See our newsletter for official numbers, and if you don't already receive it, don't forget to sign up!

This night would not have been possible without the dedicated help and organization of many volunteers like those pictured below.  Thank you, gracias, from the bottom of our hearts!