City Year goes to the gala!

Coming into City Year, the last thing I would have thought I would do is attend a $350 a ticket gala, especially living on a stipend. Yet, that's exactly what I, along with the rest of my team, did last night. To be fair, we were there for free under the terms that we would help clean up, but still, it felt pretty cool!
Up until Thursday, we had thought we would be able to able to dress up and wear whatever we wanted, but at the last minute, they decided they wanted us in uniforms, which was a bummer. All of the girls had already picked out their dresses and were planning on getting ready together.  I think they thought they were being nice by letting us wear black pants and heels instead of our khakis and timberland boots. It was pouring rain, though, so we probably would have been better off in our full uniform. Oh well.
Anyways, my TL Erica picked up Arthur, Pat and I and drove us to the "Levinthal's Estate" where the gala was being held. The Leventhal's are a couple who have donated a ton of money to NHCS in the past, including sponsoring the City Year team.  They hold the gala at their house every year.  We got there right in time for cocktail hour.  Even though we weren't allowed to drink, the appetizers were delicious.  It was a sign that it was going to be a good night. A few of the teachers from NHCS are in a band together and were playing music, which was fun.
Seating for dinner started at seven and we were lucky enough to all be sitting at a table together. They had told us we would just be place fillers, but I guess they felt bad about the uniforms and put us at a table together.  The third graders were singing as people came to sit down, which was so cute. As soon as everyone sat down, they had three NHCS alumni speak who had gone on to Barnard, Northeastern, and the National Guard.  The first course was salmon, which was delicious and the main course was some sort of beef with spinach which was good also.
After dinner, there was an auction to raise money for different things the school needed. The goal for the night was to raise $750,000 dollars, including dinner tickets, the auction and anything else. The auctioneer was Charlie Rose, the Dean of City Year, which was cool because he came up and met us. He's like on the top 5 CY people, so getting to meet him was cool.  It's like meeting a celebrity! This auction had two different parts to it. The first part was like a normal auction, where there were things people could bid on and the highest bidder walked away with it.  A few restaurants, including the catering company putting on the dinner, had donated dinners to be auctioned off, which went pretty fast. People are willing to spend a lot of money when food and kids are involved. Our table just sat there quietly as people bid the equivalent of our year's salary on a night's dinner. The second part of the auction was a little different because no one walked away with anything. Instead, Charlie Rose would say "Who wants to pay $500 for after school and summer school programs?" and anyone willing to donate $500 would raise their hands.  Our whole team chipped in and bought $100 worth of books for the library, which was fun.
One of the last items to be auctioned off was our team.  In order to have a City Year team at a school, it costs $300,000.  City Year pays for $100,000, Boston Public Schools pays another $100,000 and then each team has a sponsor(s) that pays the last $100,000. This year, City Year didn't have a sponsor for our team, which meant that we wouldn't have been at NHCS.  When the faculty and staff at NHCS heard that, they decided to be our sponsor, which just shows how much they want and need us there.  In order to do that, they have to raise $100,000 on top of all of the other money they need to raise in order to have us there. SO MUCH PRESSURE!!  Instead of having one person just donate $100,000 (because it's just not likely), they had split it up into $5,000 bids, so they only needed 20 people to donate.  There was also an anonymous donor who had agreed to match whatever was donated that night. Charlie introduced us and we all stood up for the 400 guests so they could see where their money was going. When he started, there were only a couple of people who were raising their tickets, which was kind of awkward, but because Charlie was such a good auctioneer, he managed to get 20 people to donate $5,000 for us!!  It was amazing and brought tears to my eyes. I don't think I needed any more inspiration for this year, but if I did, I found it last night.

The entire team, minus Nick and plus Hong (the math fellow at our school)

Angela, Sam, Me, Arthur and Erica

Ethan, Megan, Rachel and Angela

The tent full of guests and $350 dinners.

It was amazing to watch these people just give away extreme amounts of money for a school that, I'm guessing, their children didn't even go to. I hope that one day, I'll be able to do that too. The night ended with Chocolate Mousse for dessert (for me) and helping to break down the tables, tent, and all of the pictures hanging on the walls.  I am so glad that I got to go to the gala because I think it made me appreciate all that NHCS does for these kids and inspire me to work hard for these kids even more.

On another, more selfish note, Chelsea went home this weekend. It was nice because Matt was out for the night last night, so when I got home, the apartment was all mine. It was quiet, no one was asking me where Delaware was (like Matt did last week...he didn't know it was a state), and I could do whatever I wanted, which was lie in bed and watch TV. When Chelsea got back today, she brought food, mouse traps (thank goodness) and an iPhone. I was asking her how home was and she goes "Oh and I got an iPhone."  It took all of my self-control not to acknowledge it (because I knew that's what she wanted). Literally, the iPhone is the only material thing I have wanted all year and SHE WENT HOME FOR A WEEKEND AND HER PARENTS BOUGHT ONE FOR HER. It was like buying a shirt or a movie for her. No big freaking deal. She had the droid, which is just microsoft's version of the iPhone, but yet, she just wanted a change, so her parents bought her the iPhone.  I almost died I was so mad. ahhhhhh.

Anyways, now that I've got that out of my system, we're all good. My real  (college) room mates are coming next weekend and I'm so excited!!  I can't wait for them to be here!! Five days and counting!

In case you were still hesitant as to why people were paying $5000 for us last night, here are some statistics to support City Year's work in schools.

	of all students tutored by City Year improved raw literacy scores.
	reduction in the number of students with less than 90% attendance as a result of City Year’s attendance support activities.
	of teachers in a nationwide survey agree or strongly agree: City Year corps members helped students feel more motivated to learn.
	of teachers in a nationwide survey agree or strongly agree: City Year corps members helped foster a positive environment for learning.
	of principals in a nationwide survey agree or strongly agree: City Year corps members are positive role models.