JDRF Promise Ball - 2001

     On May 5th 2001, My family and I volunteered at the JDRF Promise Ball. Every spring, the JDRF holds a fundraiser via live & silent auctions to raise money for research toward a cure. It is still going strong, now in its 31st year.

     Wealthy people, devoted folks, and local celebrities all gathered for a dinner and cocktails along with a hefty donation/fee at the Hilton along the Delaware riverfront. They walked around, drank, ate, and did that forced social interaction that many people seem very fond of. But the main draw of the night were table and pedestals placed around the ballroom lobby with many wondrous items for auction that they could all bid on. It was 15 years ago, and my pauper eyes were not allowed to stain their illustrious prizes (I just don't recall what was up for auction, and we could have bid on the items if we had a spare thousand lying around nearby).

     After they saw everything and tired of walking around, or tired from having their personal servants write down bids, they all shuffled into the ballroom to be served their sustenance with a collective eye-roll. A live auction was held for things that were more prestigious than the baskets of goodies and gift certificates in the lobby. Some folks spent their time looking at their pocket watches through a monocole, counting down the seconds until they could leave, while other donators bid on things like spending a day with a local celebrity (newscaster), golf with a washed-up athlete, vacations to places that did not want them, and sports memorabilia that probably could have done fine sitting out in the lobby.

     It was out job as volunteers to be runners, or folks who would take the winning item or representative item plus the validation ticket to the now-slightly less rich winner. With food typically falling out of their faces, we handed over their prize which they surely did not actually need. Sometimes a photo would be taken of the materialistic hand off, if the bid was unusually high, or if the item was unusually interesting. After each round, we would filtered back into line like cattle by the side of the stage, anxious for our turn to run the next prize out to the elite.

    Our thanks was a nice, mock-amber glass heart necklace attached to a red string.  We were able to take part in the appetizer self-service stations as well, and it was reward itself getting to feel small and insignificant around all of the big bellied aristocrats and their fur-laden accompaniments. But I guess it was fun, too.