BEST Lombardi Gala EVER

On Saturday night, Emmmmm, Chrissy, Kimmy, and I volunteered at the Lombardi Gala, which is an event to raise money for cancer research. I was sort of excited because I had never been to a gala before. Plus, if you volunteered, you got to wear a cocktail dress. And we all know that we aren't the type of girls who pass up the chance to wear a cocktail dress when the occasion arises.

Volunteering shift one involved monitoring a silent auction. We were in the "home" section, which is sort of ironic considering that Emmmm and I will have no home in a few months. So, we stood their looking nice amid the crystal chandeliers, heavy expensive looking tables, and rugs. As I was standing there, something occurred to me. The people at this thing were loaded. Bids were being thrown down in the $1,000's without so much as batting an eye. This was the prime spot for people watching... from our vantage point behind the table, we had an unobstructed view of the whole room.

The silent auction got really fun towards the end though… with a mere 30 seconds to go, people got the crazed glint in their eyes and started hovering near the items that they needed to have. The auction ended, and as we were quickly picking up the bid sheets, this one woman started screaming at another about the fairness of bids placed on a crystal chandelier. She hissed "you were hovering right there to beat my bid". Even though the whole point of a silent auction is to beat someone else's bid, apparently, it doesn't go over very well if the other person really really really wants the item.




After shift one it was time for a small break, some sprite and cookies.

Shift two involved going into the gala, locating the winners, and telling them that they had won. I was a little bit apprehensive about this initially, because I wasn't sure how well someone walking up to a complete stranger and interrupting the dinner that they had paid $400 for was going to go over. But it turns out that it went over just fine, because people at gala's love winning things!

So, the four of us became gala Santa Clauses, bringing tidings of great winnings to those who were attending this event. When you approached the table and said "hello, I'm looking for so and so" everyone's eyes lit up and then as the anticipation built you said, "because you won blah blah". It was great! People loved you!

As I found out, sometimes, they loved you a little bit too much. My second winner was an older looking gentleman, and when I found him, he said, "Holy moly! Did I win you?" to which I brightly replied "Nope, but here's the next best thing!" and shoved a box of tools at him.

Meanwhile, outside of the gala, the picking up of winning items and processing the payment was pure pandemonium. Emmmm, being the super auditor that she is noted (and yes, I said "noted" because that's an auditor word) that the credit card slips that people were signing were all in the amount of $0.00. Keeping the best interest of the Lombardi Gala in mind and the money this event was supposedly raising, she decided to take action. Right in the middle of 30 plus people shuffling boxes, platinum credit cards, and the like, Emmmm issued an audit finding.

"Why aren't you having people sign receipts with actual amounts?!?! They can dispute the charges tonight and you won't have any legal claims to the money because they authorized you to charge $0.00!!!"

It turns out that the credit card amounts would be sent over later on to the companies and that the charges would appear on Monday. It also turns out that the volunteers were much more focused on moving the stuff out of the auction room than having a good internal control structure, and hence Emmmm's doomsday warnings fell on deaf ears. However, inside the gala room, she found much more sympathy as she was forced to explain the reason for the $0.00 credit card bill over and over again. One gentleman remarked, " 30 years from now and you'll be running this operation".

After the gala festivities were over, the four of us hit the town for some post gala celebration which involved martini's at Russia House and seeing the sights that are Halloween in Dupont Circle, but that is another post for another time.....