The 18th Annual GALA will be marked in the EnAble “History Book” as the one to remember! This year the GALA made a few changes that definitely proved to be successful. First, we were very fortunate to secure our first Presenting Sponsor with the InterContinental Hotels Group and many other valuable sponsors, whose names are listed to the right.   Pictured below are Vicki Gordon, Senior Vice President - Corporate Affairs of InterContinental Hotels Group with Anne Brown of The Project Company.

Guest began arriving and had pens in

hand and ready to bid! People were

crowded around the silent auction

tables admiring the many trips,

household items, sports memorabilia

and so much more.

Guests sat down to a wonderful dinner and soon the evening program began. It was a very moving program as Melissa Crawley, Rickie Gary, Marshall Port and Alfred Cole shared stories about their accomplishments, wishes and people who are important in their lives.

The next highlight of the evening was when EnAble President, Richard Colyer announced the winner of the Tex Crossin Award. As many of you may remember, this award is given each year to one person who truly makes a difference in the lives of the clients at EnAble and was established in memory of our late Executive Director, Tex Crossin. We were very pleased to have Alfred Cole announce that the winner of this award for 2006 was his good friend, Mr. Tom Davis (pictured here with Alfred and Andruw Jones of the Atlanta Braves.

After the evening program Art Eckman and Jeff Hamling got the live auction up and rolling. This year, the verbal auction raised over $47,000! We had many exciting items, such as a week long stay at a lovely villa in Tuscany, and autographed guitar from Alan Jackson and so much more. The most exciting items were those given to us by the people we support. Alfred Cole auctioned off playing a round of golf with him at Crooked Creek, Marshall Port donated an original painting of his artwork (pictured on the masthead) “Fireworks,” and Leigh Smith, Lisa Espinosa, Bill Lewis, Bobby Brock and Bobby Norton (with the help of EnAble staff members, Christi Rickett and Rose Prophitt, and former staff, Nandeen Pagano), created a beautiful concrete table and two benches (pictured at the right) that were hand painted, tiled and grouted – a true piece of art! The three items alone raised $22,700!                                      
 

Another new item this year was the selling of two hundred raffle tickets for $100 each. The winner, Brad Johnson, received two round-trip business class tickets on Delta Airlines and five-night accommodations in Paris or Rome (winner’s choice) at the lovely InterContinental Hotel in either city.
 

After the live auction, Java Monkey kept the guests on their feet while others keep the bids running on the silent auction. As the evening got later and the bids kept getting higher and higher all the people who had worked so hard to make this event a success had large dollar signs in their minds and smiles on their faces for EnAble.
 

Due to the support of InterContinental Hotels Group, our other sponsors and donors, the many contributors for the verbal and silent auctions, and a fabulous host committee , and people who attend with their wallets wide-open, we are very pleased to report that we raised over $178,000!  The is a $74,000 increase from last year, so as we said earlier – it is a night to go down into the EnAble “History Books!”

The dollars raised at this event will be used for the many repairs that are in great need, such as bathroom repairs, rebuilding decks, serious mold damage, roof, chimney, and gutter repairs and the list goes on and on for EnAble’s twenty-three group homes and respite house. All combined these repairs total around $380,000. We also hope to complete the build out of the remaining warehouse facilities at the north headquarters to make classrooms available for training and for the Supported Employment Training program for a cost of $115,000 through other fund-raising this year.

A great big “THANK YOU!” again to all of those who volunteered their time to make this event such an exciting and successful year. I hope each of you will mark your calendar to attend this fun event next year on Saturday, March 3, 2007 again at the Crown Plaza Ravinia Hotel. w

                                         -- By DeAnn Rauth, Director of Development

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