Last Saturday night, our affiliate held it's second annual Hearts & Hammers Dinner and Auction. The evening was nice, good friends, warm atmosphere and a wonderful meal. Bob Carey, resident photographer, did an awesome job again capturing the spirit of the event. We celebrated the fact that we have begun to build again, after a 2 year hiatus. We celebrated the exciting direction where we are headed and most of all we just celebrated all things "Habitat".
The evening was truly enjoyable, I'm not kidding, it really was. It fun to compete with other attendees for live and silent auction items and it was exciting to hear from our Executive Director as to where the affiliate is headed, now that our current development is underway.
I thought the best part of the event was hearing from Rosa, one of our 56 Habitat homeowners, regarding the life-changing event she and her family went through almost 4 years ago. They went through a dramatic change as they moved from a small, cramped garage to a brand new, beautiful single family home.
But no one in the room captured the audience's attention like Mariana did. Mariana is Rosa's young daughter and she put into words how she felt about the whole experience.
Obviously, Mariana's written words cannot compare to her spoken ones, but her message is one and the same - gratitude, so thank you Mariana, for sharing your thoughts with all of us.
Bar tending for Cocktails in Havana 2014 at its finest
On August 22nd, the Real Estate Partners held their 4th Annual Cocktails in Havana evening. This event has grown to become the second largest fundraising event for our affiliate and this year, there are rumors that net proceeds are near $60K. This has yet to be confirmed since the final tally is being added up however, anyway you look at it, that is an impressive amount. The first year, $11K were raised and the event has raised exponential amounts since then. We are extremely grateful to Peter and Kristina Kalaydjian and Lupe Flores for their hard work, dedication and passion for Habitat for Humanity of Ventura County - thank you yet again. You guys rock!
On that note, I would also like to give extra special kudos to my 2 cousins, Miguel and Chuy, for stepping up and bailing us out of a bind. Other than the beer and hard liquor sampling, we had no barman to mix and serve drinks this year. My cousins, who were on vacation here from Aguascalientes Mexico, offered to step in and volunteer. This opportunity was a piece of cake for them since they both work at one of the most popular watering holes back in their hometown called "La Cantina". In any case, Miguel and Chuy got busy as they proved they were certainly no fish out of water. Peter told them his recipe for his famous "Jungle Juice" to which they picked up on right away. No ingredients were written down at all.
During the evening, some attendees only wanted juice while others wanted mixed drinks and this resulted in uneven quantities of remaining ingredients. So rather than closing up the bar, they began to do what they do best - they improvised. They made their own jungle juices and margarita mixes by skillfully combining remaining juices or soda and liquor until all ingredients were gone.
Talk about being resourceful. Not only did they use all ingredients wisely and evenly, they put out a tip jar and raised an additional $150 that went towards our mission. These 2 gentlemen did an awesome job and I personally will be forever grateful to them. I love these guys. Gracias muchachos! Los quiero mucho!
