Great Day

Wow, what a day!! We had the benefit!! There really weren't as many people there as I thought there would be, but the weather I'm sure played a huge role, We had a snow day on Friday and as the day went on the roads cleared up, but then later in the day it came back, snowing. blowing , just January Michigan nasty stuff... And it hasn't stopped yet, it is REALLY cold with wind chills below zero. But anyway, we had our Sloppy joes and chips, pickles and desserts, and we had a TON left!! Schmucks freezer is full of sloppy joes as are the rest of ours!! ( I'm not complaining, they are Cranes Sloppy joes!!) We had SO much help!! The boyscout troop 45 came to help thier brother scout and served drinks, cleared tables, helped carry plates for people, I was in the kitchen the whole time, but I heard they did a GREAT job.... They and the scout leaders all left just before 2, they had Klondike Derby practice until 4:30.. the rest of us stayed to clean up which went really well and really fast, and we got everything delivered back to where it needed to go ( mostley to Cranes, we used thier pots, warmers, spoons ect) and then since we only have 1 car yet, I rode to Dave and Denises, with Denise where the boys were and we counted the money, we wanted to see how we did. My "guesstamite" was if we sold all 300 "joes" we would make around $1500, but we didn't sell that many, maybe around 1/2 ( a lot of people came in put money in the box and didn't eat) So I was a little worried, but we started counting the money and we made a total of $1700 We were THRILLED!!! And donations are still coming in. Doug the kids and I had to go to Clemantines last night for Mimi's birthday dinner but had planned to meet up with the Johnsons at Schmucks afterwards so we could give them thier money. Denise even gift wrapped it. They guessed between $400-$600, needless to say, when we gave them thier total, Candi and Vicki (her mom) were in tears... and Ray, was speechless ( which is unusual for him ) They said it would really help with thier deductable and thier co-pays that have been adding up. So all in all, we really made a difference, and even though we didn't get as many people there as we'd hoped, it was the big hearts of the people that came in, Ryan stood right by the food window and thanked everyone for coming, needless to say, he was exhausted by the end, he wouldn't sit down.
Denise and I took the money and counted it, and then we all went to Schmucks after we got back from Clems, to present it to them, when we were leaving Ryan gave me the biggest hug, that was the best reward for all this, What a great family!!