Last night we attended the Big Climb Awards Ceremony at the Columbia Tower Club - on the 76th floor of the high rise we climbed to raise money for Leukemia.
The awards ceremony was a very cool event. They combined both Big Climb fundraisers - the one that we participated in on March 22nd, as well as the one that firefighters participated in on March 8th. The firefighters' climb was just slightly harder than ours. They climbed in full combat gear. It is the largest individual firefighter competition in the world. Both Big Climbs benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
The awards party was a formal event with gentlemen wearing suits and firefighters wearing "Class A" uniforms. We dressed up, Art wore his green guide puppy in training vest. Everyone loved Art.
Awards were presented for top 3 in each category - fundraising, racing, team fundraising and team racing.
Ezra's team won a special award. They told a little about Ezra and that he died on February 5, 2009. They said they got a phone call about a week later from Ezra's 4th grade teacher, wondering if it was too late to get a team together to climb in Ezra's memory. Although Ezra's team was one of the last to sign up, we ended up being in the tenth place for the largest team and 10th place for fundraising - out of hundreds of teams. Most teams signed up and began fundraising in October 2008, while Ezra was happily living his life. Ezra's Team had 38 members and raised $9, 416.00. So our award for was for making it into the top 10 in just over one month.
HUGE Thank you to everyone that so generously supported our team. Money raised goes to blood cancer research and aid to current patients living with blood cancers.
Milo was our winning fundraiser, with $1,158.00 - Another HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to him. He was enormously proud that he could lead our team in this area.
Our family attended the Awards event along with one of Ezra's 5th grade teachers, Ms. C and one of his classmates - Ivy. It was a great night. We shared a table with a firefighter that was very impressed with Milo's Big Climb accomplishments in honor of his brother. Actually more than one firefighter stopped to congratulate Milo, which was very cool. What can you say about a firefighter all dressed up in a formal uniform, holding a trophy or two, and talking to an 11 year old boy, telling him that they are impressed with him or that they think his accomplishment is cool or that his brother would be proud of him, etc. A priceless experience.
So many people have asked me how this fundraiser went, with the economy suffering and all. The Firefighters raised $640,000 (up $90,000 from last year). The Big Climb raised about $1,296,000 - final sponsorship money still being counted - (almost $300,000 more than last year).
We had a great experience participating in this event and felt like it was a great way to honor Ezra' s life and memory. Ezra would absolutely LOVE the Big Climb. Please consider joining Ezra's Team or pledging us next year, we thank you in advance. Milo has already started planning for next year's team. Here we go...
