Dear Wahoo,
Do you have any idea how wonderful you are?
This past weekend I was one of the magicians at the fundraising event for Alex Divis and his family. It's been just over a month since 10-year old Alex had a relapse with his Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and your community rallied. Bishop Neumann High school donated the use of their cafeteria & gym for the fundraiser. Food and drink was donated as was music, bounce houses, magic, baked goods and table after table of silent and live auction items. All given out of love for Alex.
But that wasn't enough. You can't pay bills with magic tricks. You can't fill your car's gas tank with cookies to take countless drives to Children's Hospital in Omaha. It took something else.
It took the good people of Wahoo.
People parked blocks away and walked through a gentle snow to bid on items, buy raffle tickets, buy cookies or just drop money into a bucket. The line for sloppy joes and hotdogs extended all the way down a hallway, but I didn't hear anybody complaining. Even children helped out by walking around the cafeteria refilling glasses, wiping down tables and rolling around trash cans for your convenience. Volunteers greeted people, painted faces, worked in the kitchen, sold raffle tickets, made announcements, created balloon animals, played music, set up and tore down tables and did countless other major and minor tasks that went unseen.
But it was the non-volunteers who really made the difference. I have no idea how many people came to the event. It was packed though. And those who came dug deeply into their pockets. They bought cookies and wristbands. They bid on auction items and dropped $20, $50 or $100 into a donation bucket before getting their sloppy joe.
Again, I have to ask...Do you have any idea how wonderful you are?
Wahoo, you have helped restore my faith in humanity. I don't think anybody expected the magnitude of support and generosity that we witnessed this weekend. I was fortunate enough to be able to contribute in a small way and I hope that you enjoyed my performances, but I need to let you know how much I sincerely appreciate what you did for my friend and fellow magician, Alex.
And I hope that you do have an idea of how wonderful you really are.
-Jeff Quinn