Tomorrow's Child Benefit A First-Year Success

Well, we rounded up friends, family, and others to spend the afternoon with us, and it was a great success. With a silent auction, drawing, and CD sales, we raised over $3000 for Gillette and Children's Miracle Network. The entertainment was fantastic (if I do say so myself), and the day kicked off with Rusty's Rocking Jamboree. Russ energized and excited the crowd with a few songs, and even threw in some 'death-defying' stunts along the way, including his Pogo Stick/Juggling stunt (you have to see it to believe it). Then the River Valley Dance Team touched the crowd with 2 dance numbers, one of which brought the house down. After Intermission (and a LOT of Silent Auction bidding/giveaways), it was back inside to listen to singer/songwriter and my good friend Tommy Bentz, who electrified the house with 3 numbers from his solo CDs, including one song not yet released. Master of Ceremonies Brian Hughes, a longtime friend of mine, then introduced me, and I did 2 of my favorite songs that I felt really fit our event... Bon Jovi's acoustic version of 'It's My Life', and 'Rainbow Connection', both of which were warmly received. I then brought Tommy back out to help me with the last 2 songs, 'Again' and, of course, 'Tomorrow's Child'. Afterwards, Christine Pulkrabek (from Gillette) and I were presented with a check for $550 from my good friend Dylan Jorgenson (www.caringbridge.org/mi/dylanjorgenson/) and his family. They had rasied the money on behalf of Tomorrow's Child, with $500 coming from NASCAR driver Dave Blaney. It was VERY cool to have that check to add to our total.

All in all we brought in some GREAT donations, and for our first time out, I was VERY pleased. We're hoping to do it again next year, and we have a few interesting things lined up between now and then. With the help of new found friend (and stay-at-home dad), video producer Dave Weiss, we're in the planning stages of shooting my first music video for 'Tomorrow's Child', and we're hoping to release it along with the rest of the event from the 16th on DVD, and raise even more money for Gillette. I've also been asked to perform on FOX 9, a local TV station in the Twin Cities, for their Father's Day Friday show. I'll be talking about Tomorrow's Child, and being a stay-at-home dad, as well as giving info on the Tomorrow's Child Project, and everything we're planning. I'm also tentatively scheduled to visit KARE 11 (another Twin Cities TV station) sometime around Father's Day as well, so we're hoping to keep the spotlight on Tomorrow's Child for many weeks to come. I'll also be appearing before the Gillette Board to present our check to them in the name of Tomorrow's Child next week, so I'll let you know how that goes...

I want to take a minute to thank all the people around the world wide web that helped promote the Tomorrow's Child Benefit, whether it was a write-up or interview, or a mailing or banner listing on your web sites. I appreciate EVERYTHING you've done to help give this project, and these kids, the help they all deserve.

Below are some pics from the event and I'm working on streaming some video from the day as well. I'll let you all know as soon as the DVD/ Video is ready to go, as it's something I'm looking forward to releasing.