From Fun To Fundraising

A Brief History of the Ghent Bar Tours

Continued from Page 2

The local bars were contacted and our idea explained to them. Many were excited by the idea and jumped on board right away (a few others took a little more coaxing). Encouraged by early success for our hard work we continued with our planning, coming up with fun games and competitions to add to the excitement the day of the event and ensure that participants kept moving on the tour and the bars saw as many unique patrons as possible. Participants began registering online and by mail and within a few weeks of our marketing kickoff we knew the event would find success – we just didn’t realize yet quite how much success that would be. The day of our first official tour benefiting a charitable organization finally came and the result was an event that far exceeded our initial expectations and raised over $6,000!

Success

As with the initial tour the summer before, people started asking when the next tour was taking place before this one ever ended. The big difference this time was the bars were asking the same question. Never wanting to disappoint, the semi-annual rotation of bar tours in Ghent continued on July 29th, 2006 with another Summer Bar Tour, another great success that raised nearly $7,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Eastern Virginia. A new feature at this particular event was the emergence of dark-colored volunteer shirts to help participants pick them out for assistance in the large crowds.

With our newfound knack and expertise at pulling of successful charity pub crawls, the 2007 Winter Bar Tour was planned with our regular fanfare but also added in event magnets and a shuttle bus. The press finally got ahold of our success story and covered us in both the local daily newspaper and the local television news. With a mountain of positive support behind us, this winter event grew to enormous proportions, shattering all previous records and expectations with 900 participants and $14,000 raised! There was such a large rush of participants the day of the event that our supplies could not keep up with their demand and we were forced to deliver over 300 event shirts to paid participants several weeks after the event had already taken place.

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