Well, I did not get a chance to help with the clean-up in Dexter because they had too many volunteers--a good thing. However, I kept busy in support of my neighbors. I sit on the Board of the Hamburg Pirate Youth Football Association and I was busy planning and organizing a fundraiser most of the day Friday.
What can you do with a motivated group of volunteers, over 27,000 returnable bottles and cans (worth 10 cents each), and many generous cash donations?
Well this past weekend the Hamburg Pirates Youth Football Association (Cheer and Pom too) held a fundraiser for the Dexter Tornado Relief Fund in front of the Kroger Store in Pinckney. From 9 to 4 on Saturday and 9 to almost 6 on Sunday (we were supposed to end at 3pm both days), our youth football, cheer and pom players and parents collected cans and bottles for return as well as cash donations. When we finally stopped accepting cans and bottles on Sunday we had 13 heaping grocery carts full of bottles and cans. In two short days, we collected a total of $5,000 dollars.
Our program will be matching the total and donating a check for $10,000 to the Dexter Relief Fund.
It was amazing to see my community rally behind this event. We had donations from as far away as Ann Arbor and Brighton because people heard about it through Facebook! Organizing, executing an event like this and getting to see the generosity in your community will certainly restore your faith in mankind. I am very proud of our little corner of Livingston County and the Pinckney and Hamburg communities. It is great to have a day when everyone you see is showing their best side!
I can't wait to present the check to the Village Officials in Dexter!
Tim