Before I hop on a plane for Vienna, Austria, I wanted to share with you some of the highlights and photos taken during The Hills Are Alive—Bon Voyage Party & Fundraiser for The Dressage Foundation.
The fundraiser was a perfect setting to gather family, friends, neighbors and acquaintances to celebrate this once-in-a-lifetime experience that I am about to embark upon, while also raising funds for The Dressage Foundation. I was admittedly emotional over seeing the wonderful guest turnout; some of the guests live and breathe dressage, and others learned about it for the first time that evening. It made me realize how much it matters to someone when you make a concerted effort to support his or her passion and interests. In addition to the funds raised, I am most proud that this fundraiser served a dual purpose of increasing the level of awareness for The Dressage Foundation within our local community and beyond.
This was my first-ever fundraiser and truthfully, it was a lot of hard work, but the event left me inspired to think ahead and explore creative ways of ‘giving back.’ Growing up I watched my busy parents devote much of their free time towards nonprofit work. To this day I admire and hope to follow their lead in helping others achieve their goals.
So, where to begin?
Acknowledging that August weather, especially in North Carolina, is unpredictable at best, I decided that our local Pizzeria & Pub would provide both excellent shelter and food. It was important that every guest feel comfortable regardless of what Mother Nature had in store.
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During the fundraiser, I also wanted every guest to feel as though they were experiencing the sights, sounds and tastes of Austria without actually being there.
- For the sights, I incorporated The Sound of Music theme by decorating the venue with enormous snowflakes, satin blue ribbons and brown paper packages (raffle ticket bags) tied up with string. With Andreas Hausberger’s permission, guests enjoyed a viewing of Tradition In Weiss. Tradition In Weiss DVD gives insight into the classical tradition of the Spanish Riding School performances and features the famous “horse ballet” known as the School Quadrille. If you have not seen it, you must!
- For the sounds, hands down this was the easiest of decisions, but I needed to beg, plead and smile my way towards convincing my friend and Nashville, Tenn., artist, songwriter and storyteller, Sarah Aili that she wanted to visit us, more specifically on August 24th and for the purpose of singing at the fundraiser. I nearly fell out of my chair when she agreed. Her sweet melodic voice filled up the room as guests danced and twirled across the floor.
- For the tastes, I recruited the bartender’s help to create a specialty cocktail, appropriately named ‘The Hugo Alpine Spritzer’ that incorporates Prosecco with fresh garden mint and elderberry syrup. A popular combination in the region, although my Austrian friends have since enlightened me that it is actually the extract of the elderberry flower and not the berry that is more commonly used.
- Truth be told, apple anything in Europe is absolutely delicious. I have a wonderful friend here in the U.S. who whips up unbelievable desserts at her own bakery. She kindly donated the cake for the fundraiser; however, I received a text message from her the day before indicating that the apple pie was ready for delivery and where did we want to meet? In error the cake became a pie; however, my sweet friend said ‘no worries, I can turn that pie back into a cake. How about an apple pie crumble cake?’ Yes, Yes and Yes! For those of you reading this blog close your eyes tight and imagine what happens with an apple pie becomes an apple pie crumble cake. OMG!
One would think two hours would be plenty of time to set-up the raffle and silent auction tables. Despite my organizational skills, we were scrambling to display all of the graciously donated items with their matching ticket bag or silent auction sheet. I kept calling out for the time. In the end, it all looked spectacular and the tables were very popular.
A shout out to the magnificent staff at our local Pizzeria & Pub, you nailed it! Delicious, artfully crafted appetizers were presented by roaming waiters and served on white trays adorned with tiny flowers picked from the restaurant gardens earlier. All guests left happy and with full bellies.
As promised, I will be sending out handwritten thank you notes (soon, very soon) to all guests and everyone who kindly donated to the fundraiser. I owe a heartfelt thank you to everyone who endured seeing months of Facebook posts promoting the fundraiser (there were a lot). Your support means the world to me. Putting this fundraiser together was definitely more work than I imagined; however, your endless smiles, the amazing outpouring of community spirit and donations, so that The Dressage Foundation can help make more dreams come true makes all of this seem easy! You are all incredible! Anything can happen when we come together!
Jennifer Whitelaw Shepherd is one of the adult amateur dressage riders who received an inaugural grant from the new Heldenberg Training Center Fund in Memory of E.L. Dreitzler to attend the Spanish Riding School’s Training Center in Heldenberg, Austria. She grew up in Ontario, Canada and has spent most of her adult life in Hillsborough, N.C. after graduating from North Carolina State University with a degree in Biological Sciences. She works in the field of clinical research, which supports her seemingly endless riding activities, triathlon races, family and fish. Jen is an adult amateur dressage student and passionate advocate for classical dressage. She currently rides and proudly owns an unconventional dressage horse who has taught her essentially everything there is to know about life.
