$50.00 Gala Tickets! Say What?!!! Feel free to skip all the words and buy tickets immediately if that alone convinces you.
Being an adult can be hard. Being a parent that makes time for adult fun can be even harder.
The success of the museum has been all because of parents. Parents that volunteer. Parents that spread the word. Parents that take their children and are kind to the volunteers at the museum. Parents that are understanding that the museum is still in its infancy and will keep growing and getting better.
We don’t want the decision to attend the gala for parents to be hard. It’s hard enough to find a babysitter. The $50.00 dollar entry ticket includes 2 drink tickets, games, silent auction, and Josh Alton doing stand-up.
The idea of a gala or some sort of adult event has been brewing for a long time. An event that benefits the children’s museum and all the children that play there, but is only for adults for a fun special night out has a huge appeal. Josh Alton, the Des Moines native and museum guest, has been talking about how an adult stand up event would be great for all the parents. The amazing programming committee immediately was like YES!!!!!
That was last spring. I was like hold on. We have a bunch of work to do to complete a feasibility study. I definitely didn’t want to be a party pooper. I desperately wanted to dress in fancy adult clothes and not be hauling an 8 ft wood boat around in the summer heat or spraying and cleaning surfaces. One of the reasons I love to volunteer for museum shifts is that I get to be surrounded by others who like the museum too. Hanging out at an adult event with a bunch of people who like the museum and want the best for it sounds like a dream.
This dress will totally not turn out as awesome as it looks, but I totally want to buy it. And then I’ll have to somehow make it look okay.
So the amazing programming committee did research and pitched the idea again in the fall. We were done with the heavy lifting for the feasibility study, and in general we are an organization that takes researched risks. Making public a FaceBook page and website prior to having built one exhibit was a risk. Saying yes to traveling events, opening the mall location, building a board full of people passionate about children’s museums-these were all risks. These risks don’t pay off because we are lucky. These risks have paid off because of the hard work and because of the families that were willing to take a risk with us.
The thing is there is always behind the scenes work, but just in the last 2 weeks we have had some really big things happening. It’s kind of like we have a bunch of large puzzle pieces that we think will all fit together to make an amazing giant floor puzzle, but we don’t have them all together. We’ll have them way before the Gala. There will be exciting posts and information coming out the next two months as we fit the puzzle pieces together, but reevaluating the reason we want a gala and who we want to attend has led us to decide $100.00 tickets doesn’t work for us. This is a gala about fun and laughter.
Honestly-if you stop in and talk to me I will probably answer any questions you possibly have and then some. I’m horrible at keeping exciting development secrets especially since our organization isn’t about secrets or need to know basis. I always feel the museum is owned by the whole community.
This next part should be accompanied by humming “Take a Chance on me” from Mama Mia. I seriously thought about trying to sing the complete rewrite of the lyrics, but I really can’t sing. I had help rewriting it with my oldest Riley and she got excited to sing it. When your too cool serious 11 year old gets excited about something you totally let her. Video coming soon to our FaceBook event page and event page!
Attend the Giggle Gala, Be the first in line
Honey-It’s fifty
Take a chance on us
If you need us, let us know, gonna be around
You’ve got a place to go, February 9th
You won’t be alone especially if you invite your friends
Honey, It’s fifty
Take a chance on us
Gonna do our very best and it ain’t no lie
If you put us to the test, if you let us try
Take a chance on us
Take a chance on us
Let’s have a sold out event. Let’s be wowed by what a bunch of volunteers and parents can accomplish. Let’s laugh, let’s play games, let’s drink, let’s eat.
Let’s do it at an amazing price of $50.00 a ticket since it’s a good cause. But seriously babysitters need to get paid, and there might be a silent auction item you want to bid on.
We could definitely use the money to help with some of the exciting behind the scenes work, but we really think that a fun celebration and our first gala supporting the mission of building the foundation of life long learning by promoting the power of play should be fun and silly and ridiculously positive.
See your February 9th 7-11 at Decades
And it you are worried about what to wear don’t be. It’s not anywhere nearly as complicated as Gerald from Elephant and Piggie books makes it. There is a video of me reading the cute I’m Invited to a Party by Mo Williams book, but you should definitely not look for it on the event page because videos are always embarrassing.
Psst-If you work for a company that likes to sponsor stuff, you could totally connect us and encourage them to take a chance on us. No singing needs to be involved. Though if you do I’d love a video of it. We even have a sponsorship menu and are willing to work with companies to find a sponsorship they are excited about.