Fire and Ice Successfully Completed

After months of preparation the Fire and Ice Soiree has been successfully completed. The evening started off with drinks all round, provided by the fantastic bar staff of David and Rebecca and an opening speech by the MC - Ric. The exquisite food was provided by Eliza and Juanita and included oysters on ice, coconut coated prawns, and lots of other great tasting nibbly bits. Guests then had the opportunity to mingle and check out all the fantastic silent auction goods on offer. Throughout the evening raffle tickets were sold, thanks to Julie who did a great job and the first ice-breaker game 'out of line' resulted in an equal draw amongst seven people. Music was ably supplied by DJs Plump & Rosie.

At around 8pm the live auction took place with our auctioneer, Brad Cooper, doing a fantastic job of working up the crowd to spend up big! This was followed by a short speech by me and our next ice-breaker game. There was also an uniquely designed cross-word, crafted by the MC. So what is the country code for Antarctica? The final entertainment of the night was a quiz specifically designed by Ric that was played by teams of 4, which involved audio and visual questions. The photographer who did the great promo shots for Alice2Antarctica (seen on the front page of the Alice 2 Antarctica website), Wee-Ming, generously offered to take photos at the Fire and Ice Soiree. He was kept busy all night capturing the events on film - photos will follow soon.

A great night was had by all and after adding up all the numbers, the evening raised over $9000 a fantastic effort. There are a long list of people who I want to acknowledge for this terrific outcome. Firstly thank you to all of the supporters who turned up on the night - it meant an incredible amount to me to see you all there, showing your support both of me and what I am trying to achieve. An additional big thanks must of course go to the various businesses and organisations that generously supplied their goods/services for this event. In particular I would like to acknowledge those companies and individuals that provided goods for the 'live auction', these include; Anaconda who donated a Fluid Ricochet Mountain Bike; Matt who provided the limited edition Ricky Ponting print; Alex Brown, the head of the Centre for Indigenous Vascular and Diabetes Research who generously donated an original painting; Mediapad who provided the Melbourne Helicopter Joy Flight and; Deirdre Jewellery who donated the beautifully handcrafted silver necklace.

Next thanks must go to my organising team, without the major contribution of these people the event would not have happened, nor been as successful. Tasj, the event coordinator was brilliant at seeing the bigger picture and about keeping us all in line and to schedule, she also was a donor for silent auction goods from her 'One Hedi Day' line of travel accessories. Shahan, of 'the Science of Copy' used her finely crafted copy writing skills to develop the content for the Events Brochure and she also liaised with many of the auction good donors and on the night did a great job on the Welcome Desk. Leith, of Communications Consultant, was our media liaison man, he also coordinated the DJs and provided the A2A posters. Sue, the Donations Coordinator, was instrumental in sourcing many of the silent auction goods and raffle prizes, and although she couldn't make it on the night her efforts were greatly appreciated. Sally, who was our liaison with the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, was a great resource for the event as well as playing a major role in the set-up for the night as well as on the Welcome Desk. I should also mention that together Sally and I consolidated the costings - auction goods, entry donations, raffles and despite neither of us having strong accounting backgrounds we both came up with the same numbers!! Finally to the MC, Ric who played the major role in the success and enjoyment of the evening for all, in fact all the feedback I have received about the event is based on the great work Ric did. Not only did Ric do an outstanding job of directing the evening, engaging the crowd and keeping the laughs coming but he is also a major sponsor of A2A through his company, People Teams Leaders. Ric has been an incredible support to me from the start and I really value his contributions, even if some of the jokes were at my expense - it's okay because I was laughing too!

My thanks to those who played roles on the night. These people include: David and Rebecca on the bar, service with a smile and they even cleaned up afterwards, thanks to you both; Eliza and Juanita on catering - I have been getting such positive feedback from all attendees about the fantastic food, great job; Julie who offered her services and willingly sold raffle tickets all night, I really appreciate your help Julie with the tickets; Brad Cooper, the auctioneer, I invited Brad to attend at extremely short notice and he readily agreed to assist with the live auction; and Perla, who was instrumental in 'dressing' the function.