Happy 5th Birthday!
Exactly 5 years ago today, The Sound of Hope was officially incorporated. So last week, we threw our first big fundraising event in Birmingham, AL – The Sound of Hope’s Birthday Bash – to celebrate!
We had an incredible dessert bar, featuring 27 different desserts donated from these generous bakeries and restaurants: Urban Standard, Pastry Art, The Little Dixie Cook, Magic City Macarons, YoYo’s Donuts, Louise’s Cakes ‘n Things, The Baking Bandits, Dreamland, Cafe IZ, Serendipity Sweets, Consider it Joy Bakery, Daylight Donuts, Delicious Bakery and Urban Cookhouse. This was just a small sampling of all the delicious desserts on our dessert bar!
We also had an incredible Silent Auction, with more than 40 items donated from artisans and businesses who helped us #giveHOPE!
We would like to thank the following businesses and individuals for their Silent Auction donations: Out-Island Explorers, StoneHollow Farmstead, Gus & Kristi Malzahn, Vvego International, Baby Spouts & Co, LeighAnn Beshears (ThirtyOne Rep), Edwin Watts Golf, Lindsey Migliori (ItWorks Rep), Chiropractic Today, Ashley Warren (Advocare Rep), FarmLinks, Avondale Brewery, Tiffany Trivett Art, Susan Gordon Pottery, The Intentional Life, Helene Dujardin, Icing on the Cookie, Little Donkey, Blake Gettinger, Do-Di-Yo’s, WinnDixie, Benzaia Photography, Sprout & Pour, Heather Knowles Art, Wilde Art Co, Olio, Handcrafted Birmingham, Ollie Irene, Ragan House, Thereasa Hulgan (Stella & Dot Rep), Allison Fuqua, Kellie Hosler (Ameo Rep), Kira Aaron (Mary Kay Rep), Clotheshorse, Fancy Goods Variety Store, Serendipity Sweets, Kimberly Oehrlein (Disney Rep), Frou Frou Boutique, Forge Fitness, DL Salon (Stylists Stephanie Howell & Lin Tomasek), Sue’s Interiors & Gifts, Katie Woods Art, Brookwood Dermatology, Magic City Chiropractic, Dr. Michael Anglin, Stately Hand Calligraphy and Shannon Harris Art! Thanks too to Laughing Panda Embroidery for embroidering our beautiful table runners!
Guests also enjoyed live music from the Ruddy Reds (Patrick Reed & Kristin Mathis), beer from Avondale Brewery, and coffee from Crestwood Coffee!
The event was sponsored by Medical Properties Trust, Appleseed Workshop, Atmosphere Home Essentials, Way, Ray, Shelton & Co, and Twin Construction. (Thank you to our generous sponsors!)
We also had beautiful floral arrangements provided by the very talented ladies at BKwed! (Thank you Brooke & Debbie!)
We had an opportunity to share 4 times throughout the night about our work, including videos featuring each country where we work, and all the precious children we care for.
Guests were also able to follow a timeline of our work, which highlighted benchmarks and notable accomplishments with photographs. It was incredible to put this together and see all that has happened since 2010 – and how much our sweet children have grown in the past 5 years!
Of course, no birthday is complete without birthday cake – and we were thrilled to blow out the candles on this beautiful (and delicious) custom cake donated by Carrie Faucher Allen! (If you’d like to contact her to make an extra-special cake for your next event, her email is: carebo@hotmail.com)
But I think it’s safe to say that everyone’s favorite part of the night was the photobooth – provided by A.Wilkey Photography!
Pictured: Joel Khun, Sammy Elliot (event volunteer), Stephanie Jones (event committee member), and Scotty Jones
Pictured: Elisabeth Chramer of Laughing Panda Embroidery (thank you for donating the embroidery for our table runners!), Katie Malone (thank you for emceeing our event!) and Amanda Ford (thank you for serving on our Event Committee!)
Pictured: Event Committee Member Erin Whaley and her husband Seth.
This is Alison Wilkey, of A.Wilkey Photography – who also photographs all our products for our online store. She is pictured here with David Ytterberg of Ideogram (who handled our rebrand in 2012.) Thank you both for the awesome work you’ve done for The Sound of Hope!
Yes – Batman WAS at the #SOHBDAYBASH! Or maybe it’s another superhero… one of our wonderful sponsors (Michael Gibson of Appleseed) with his beautiful wife (Brooke Gibson)!
Pictured: Former SOH Board Member Shelley Bonds, with her husband Jake. Thank you for celebrating with us!
Pictured: 3 of our 6 Board Members; Annah Grace Morgan, Ericka Jackson, Heather Knowles. [Not pictured: Rusty Jackson, Michael Hindes, & Lane Keeter]. Thank you for serving The Sound of Hope!
Work hard, play hard! This night would not have been possible without our incredible event committee (pictured above). Thank you all for your hard work!!!
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Overall, the night was a success! It was so special to reflect back on the past 5 years and how far we’ve come! We had more than 100 guests come out to celebrate with us, and it was a wonderful opportunity to officially introduce Birmingham to The Sound of Hope! At the end of the night $7,200 was raised to help give children HOPE – so THANK YOU to everyone who sponsored, donated, volunteered, or attended the event and contributed to that final total! To see the rest of the photos from the night, click here and here, or search our hashtag #SOHBDAYBASH on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter!<
Erin
You accomplished so much! Proud of you!