As a brand new member of both We Build Pages and Internet Marketers of New York, I’m really proud to announce that last week’s Charity Party hosted by WBP raised more than $13,000 to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. That’s amazing.
It’s even more amazing when you know the back story.
Ten days before SMX East was scheduled to begin, Jim heard that IMNY would have to pull its big Charity event after too many sponsors had dropped out. Jim, a man known as much for his big heart as his crazy love for links, decided he wasn’t okay with that and commissioned the We Build Pages team to “make it happen”. And with that, the race began.
What followed would be a jam-packed week of crazy. We Build Pages Office Manager Rita Sickles was tasked with making sure that all of the many details that go into putting together an event like this were taken care of.
Would we serve food or just alcohol? Do we need prizes for raffles? What charity should we choose? Who can we get to sponsor? How much should we guilt them for? How much do we charge people to attend? Don’t forget the wristbands! And the flyers!
From there, Pat Sexton took the ball and ran with it, hitting the phones to woo potential sponsors. I don’t know how many of you have seen Pat Sexton on a mission, but…it’s intense. I’m pretty sure he didn’t sleep for three days as he wrangled up sponsors, took care of the prizes, and got everyone talking about what would be a great event. Our friend Jon Kelly was also there to lend his support, making sure that IMNY had a PayPal account set up for early registration. Everyone was on a mission to raise as much money as possible to benefit the amazing work of the Ronald McDonald house.
And when the big day came, it went off without a hitch. The event was a giant success: The turnout, the amount of money donated, and the smiling faces were all amazing. And none of that would have been possible without all the amazing attendees. So, we thank you.
We also want to thank our sponsors for the event. Without their very generous donations, none of the awesome that happened last week would have been possible. Major props, hugs and accolades to 10e20, BOTW , Search Engine Journal, SEOmoz, Sugarrae, SEMJ, Frank Watson, Search Engine People and Sure Hits.
Finishing out the Thank Train, more thanks go to the staff at Social Bar and Grill for putting up with us, Jim Hedger of WebmasterRadio for acting as MC for the evening, and to Jim Boykin for challenging the We Build Pages team to “make it happen” for charity.
We’d love to add to the $13,000+ that was raised last week. If you weren’t able to get your money in, do it now. Make your checks out to “Ronald McDonald House” and mail them to We Build Pages, 255 River Street, Troy, NY 12180 and we’ll forward them on for you. Let’s see just how generous the search community really is!
Below you’ll find a great mess of photos from the IMNY Charity Party. We hope you enjoy them. As Jim would say, we’re feeling lucky!
The (scary) Oilman Todd Friesen and Jill Sampey
Roger Monti and friend
Rob Kerry, Emilo from Blogvertise and friends
Jonathan Dingman, Scott Polk, Jillian Taylor, Brent Payne
Rob Kerry, Emilio, Jim Boykin
Danny Dover, Pat Sexton, Scott Polk
Rand Fishkin, Jim Hedger, Mystery Guest Fishkin
Pat Sexton
Virginia Nussey, Pat Sexton
Steve Boymel, Danny Sullivan, Aya Zook
Rita Sickles, Pat Sexton, Jim Hedger
Jim Boykin, Chuck Price
Carolyn Shelby, Pat Sexton, Chris Winfield
Ninja Shawn Rosko, Brent Csutoras
Roger Monti with Ninja’s Lauren Caldwell and Todd Heim
Chris Winfield, Danielle Winfield, Avi Wilensky, Frank Watson (back) John Kelly, Lauren Vaccarello, Todd Malicoat, Jim Hedger, Ben Rudnick, Tyler Shears
A group so cool Jim Boykin had to join
Jim Boykin, Shana Albert
Lauren Vaccarello, Frank Watson, Jon Kelly
(Special thanks to Tamar Weinberg for helping me identify some of the faces not in my mental Rolodex.)
15 Responses
Easily the best written article I’ve seen on this site all day. 🙂
Keep up the good work Lisa!
Jim – Lisa seems useful 🙂 Tweet!
Good work guys, that’s a respectable donation! And congrats on your first WBP post Lisa 😉
Come on Jim! You’ve known me how long now and I’m tagged as “… and friends”?
🙂
I’m just messing with you. I would like to thank all the sponsors for a truly rocking good time. That was a heck of a party.
Tony,
Your lame tag is my fault. Let me know the photo I goofed in and where you’d like your link to go and I’ll fix it. Have pity on the new girl! 🙂
Congrats to everyone involved and thank you to the sponsors for such an amazing evening for a fantastic cause! Woot! And welcome to the blog Lisa… just need to get that picture of you feeling lucky on here. 😉
Lisa,
Too many thoughts at once to make a coherent response.
First of all… WOW it is good to read your writing again! I hope the same intensity that went into making the charity party happen is put into getting your new blog up and running.
Next, THANKS to Jim, the WeBuildPages team, Jon, Rae, Frank, and all the othe sponsors from WebmasterRadio. We’re all about community and love that the rest of the community is too. (I am falling into incoherence…) It is hard to express what these events mean to myself and the WebmasterRadio crew. Suffice it to say they make us happy beyond words.
$13K in one night. OMFnG! Well done SMXers. I think that puts the sum-total of the five major charity party events above the $100K mark though I’ll have to check with IMNY to confirm that.
Lastly and again… It is so good to read your writing again Lisa. Welcome home sister.
Who’s the good looking guy in the hat?
It was a great time. Nothing better than a reason to drink alcohol and it actually goes to something good.
Thanks for everything.
What a fun night and it was great meeting everyone that I had the chance to chat with. Great post to start blogging at WBP with.
Yikes Jim you are giving Ninjas a good name:):)
It is great to see you and the team are giving back
It is not how much you make or obtain in life that counts it is how many people you help along the way.
Keep up the inspiring work
Peace
Steve
What a good time! I’m looking forward to many more of these 😉
Great post, Lisa.
WeBuildPages and all sponsors did an amazing job putting together the Charity Event. Not only was it a lot of fun, but the money raised for The Ronald McDonald House proves it was a total success.
Yeah you’re back! We Build Pages rocks and so does everyone involved. While others are busy arguing over who knows what, you seo guys and gals are making a difference. Thanks!
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