The MWFM Team in Action Last Year
By RJ Bardsley
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks of traveling for me, so it’s taken me a little while to regroup and pull together my thoughts on the recent Make Way For Molly Fundraiser event that took place a couple of weeks back. The fundraiser, you may remember from a couple of earlier BrandFiller posts, was the culmination of several months of preparation by the Barlow/Callahan families and the Make Way For Molly (MWFM) cycling team. The Newburyport, Mass-based team rides each year for the Pan Mass Challenge, raising money in the process to help support cancer research.
Let me tell you right off the bat – MWFM definitely puts the “FUN” in fundraiser. The event was a huge success with great entertainment and dancing, and a silent auction and raffle that were – in the vernacular – “off the hook.” There was even a flash mob Zumba session where the men of Newburyport showed off their dancing/work out abilities…. All I have to say about that is you had to be there for the full effect. I would share a video of the event if I didn’t fear that I’d melt the Internet with all that hotness.
From the silent auction, I walked away with a Boston College hockey jersey signed by the entire team – I ended up in a furious bidding war with someone else for that jersey, but thanks to Dana’s stealthiness and his ability to write down big numbers next to my name, I ended up winning it. My brother in law, Skip Short, ended up with a White Trash Gift Basket and a pair of sneakers signed by Rajon Rondo – while he enjoyed the autograph, I think he got the most fun out of a bull horn packed in the WT Gift Basket. We all got to hear him using it for the rest of the night. My mother in law, Janet Short, ended up with a gardening box, and now she’s got a great container garden out on her patio. All in all it turned out to be a very beneficial evening.
Speaking of beneficial – the real highlight of the evening was the sum of money raised for the MWFM team – more than $15,000 in total. That turned out to be about four grand more than anticipated. It’s really pretty amazing how much a community can accomplish when it comes together like this.
Congratulations MWFM and nice work Newburyport!!!
It truly was a fantastic night! I am so happy that they raised as much as they did and we all got to have so much fun while it was being raised!
I will forever remember the slow, under the radar, walks around that jersey as you fought to win it…. and, please, never show the Zumba video. I went up in a moment of excitement and was asked by my father to stay put, to hide him from view! LOL! He may not be a big public dancer, but he did his bit as a winner pulled onto that dance floor!
It was sooo great, as always, to see you and Dana!
OMG, every time I think about that night it blows me away at how much fun it was and how everyone gets into the spirit….watching all the “kids” dancing together and busting their moves, the auction madness, the raffle excitement, the Zumba, the food, SO many people…..everything! The Make Way for Molly team deserves a HUGE Standing O!!!!!