Event Recap | Lucky Charm Bar Crawl

Fundraising for the marathon has been by no means an “easy task.” I am in awe of people that can raise $10,000+ so effortlessly…that shit is hard! It takes a lot of time, planning, and most of your sanity as days on the calendar fly by 🙂

I already had two big-ish fundraisers in Boston over the past couple months (Spin & Sweat to End ALS & Strike Out ALS) but I wanted to do something in my hometown so I could have all my friends and family join in! I decided that my last big fundraiser would be a St. Patty’s Day bar crawl because who doesn’t love getting dressed up and drinking all day?

Saying you want to have a bar crawl and planning it are two very different things – I found that out the hard way! I initially wanted it to be around Christmas/NYE when everyone would be home for the holidays, but timing just slipped away from me and I decided to push it to March. The theme fit effortlessly though and it gave me an excuse to see everyone a month before race day so they could “wish me luck.”

This turned out to be a 3-month process of visiting the bars when I was home, calling, emailing and following up, etc. There are soooo many bars in Downtown Syracuse so I had to narrow my options down a bit based on location and then try to secure their participation. All of the managers were so great to work with, they made it easy for me to plan the route that day and offered some amazing drink/food specials. Top notch stuff!

After the bars were all in, I had to coordinate some gift basket raffles for everyone. I tried to get a mix of the “Best of Syracuse” with restaurant gift cards, SU apparel, and of course a Wegmans basket! And then of course there were other little things like ordering the wristbands for everyone, having fun photo props, and making little goodie bags with chocolate gold coins and green-wrapped Hershey kisses 🙂

Fast forward to the day of the event and I could not have been more excited! I had everything set up at the first bar and had my mini speech ready for when people were signing in. There was a lot of information to cover!

I had to check their Eventbrite ticket and match with my spreadsheet.
Give them a wristband & explain the deals/offers.
Show them the map for the day with bar locations, times, and deals. (Special thanks to Upstate Printing for making these look so great!)
Give them some raffle tickets, show them the baskets, and explain the flow of the afternoon. To encourage everyone to visit all 8 bars, I did a different drawing at each one throughout the day and had a “present to win” rule in place. Worked like a charm 😉
I directed them over to our t-shirt table where they got a free “Here to Paddy” tee courtesy of Crazy Dog T-shirts! (My man, Brian hooked me up yet again!)
And then FINALLY, I told them about my partnership with Tapingo, a food delivery service app that was offering a free drink for the day if people downloaded the app. Win-win for everyone, right? Plus, the app is super cool – I highly suggest giving it a try!

Processed with VSCO with p5 preset — Workin’ the registration table at Empire Brewing!

Here’s a closer look at the bars we had on deck for the day:

1. Empire Brewing Company
2. Blue Tusk
3. Clinton Street Pub
4. Mully’s
5. The Penny
6. Al’s Wine & Whiskey Lounge
7. Syracuse Suds Factory
8. Benjamin’s on Franklin

Andddd the basket giveaways:

1. Crazy for T-shirts
Half dozen St. Patrick’s Day tshirts with hilarious sayings from Crazy Dog Tshirts!

2. Glove Up & Chow Down
1 Month Membership for BURN Kickboxing
Sweat towel & water bottle
$15 CORElife Eatery GC

3. I Bleed Orange
Syracuse tshirts & Jersey
Manny’s Orange tshirts

4. Can’t Live Without Wegmans
Wegmans GC
Everyone’s favorite Wegmans goodies

5. Bad & Boozy
$20 Willow Rock Brewery GC
WRB Tshirt & Crowler

6. Date Night
$50 Apizza Regionale GC
Food & Game coupons for All Star Alley & Tavern
$15 Sugar & Co. GC

The event was a huge success and good times were had by all! But what made this event so incredibly special was knowing that I had people from all different points of my life come out to support me – family, friends from high school & college, and even some strangers that I just met that day. Truly #blessed to have this crew!

Momma V, Alyssa & Gina

The Home-ies!

Fisher MKTG girls

My Lucky Ladies!

The best roomies I girl could ask for ❤

Matty is here to paddy.

Lil cuzzo!

Momma ❤

Alyssa crashed our picture…

Flavortown tour guide 😉

Kub surprised us!

Momma V & Momma R!

Dad wanted a selfie..

I’ve never seen my sister drunk before.

Matt & the other loves of his life…

Johnny V making friends!

Planning and the event itself were hectic as hell, but it was such an amazing day. I was surrounded by people that mean the most to me and that’s all that mattered in the end. And because those people are literal angels, I was able to reach my fundraising goal at the first bar of the day! I think I was still in shock for days after because I just couldn’t BELIEVE it. I put a big ole fat checkmark next to that $7,500 with a smile!

I put up an Instagram post the day after and I think the caption said it all:

“Feeling pretty lucky that I REACHED MY FUNDRAISING GOAL! $7,500 seemed impossible a few months ago, but now I can officially check it off (and I still have a whole month until race day)! Completely blown away by all the love, support, and generosity from everyone in my life. My heart is so full ❤ I cannot say thank you enough, you all have truly made this such an unforgettable experience for me. Now I just have to focus on running 26.2!”

That’s a wrap on fundraising, but I am still accepting donations for my campaign. I would love to raise over $8,000 for the ALS Association…and I’m almost there. Click the link below to help me get over the hump!

Again, THANK YOU!!!! ❤

Check out my Crowdrise page to donate & help me raise as much as I can for the ALS Association: http://bit.ly/BostonBeginnings262

Boston Beginnings

26.2 miles closer to a cure, 26.2 miles closer to giving ALS patients a new beginning.

Event Recap | Lucky Charm Bar Crawl

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