Well, we did it again. A Woman, A Wife, A Mother Ministries (WWM) has a great team of women who worked hard this year to create our second annual Mom Prom® fundraiser. What is Mom Prom? "Mom Prom® was created in Canton, MI in 2006 by a woman by the name of Betsy Crapps at St. Thomas a'Becket Catholic Church. It is a ladies night out for charity in which women wear their old prom gowns, bridesmaids dresses, wedding gowns, or formals and dance the night away for a worthy cause." In 2016 it was a recorded that there were 32 states having their own Mom Prom®. Capps reports that there is usually about 50 a year.
In 2018 we had our very first Mom Prom® at Lane Tree Golf Course with 67 woman in attendance. This year we were at the Firehouse on Ash Street with 82 women in attendance. The community came together to help WWM create a beautiful experience for the women in Goldsboro and surrounding counties. Favour Ikome who is originally from Cameroon was our speaker for the evening. She now lives in New York City and came to encouraged the community of women who were gathered! We had volunteer photographers Kevin Hill and Ashley Patterson that captured our night. The pictures that they took will be a part of our Mom Prom® history. Cp3 Catering & Bakery Co. gave us exactly what we asked for, extraordinary service and delicious food. Other community sponsors were, Bicycle World, Harris Teeter, Walmart, Catherine Newsome from Impact Church, Juliet Jones from City Church, Heather and Jonathan Brink, Betty Lamar, Pink Picket Fence, Shamariah Crooms, Vikki Marcell, Victoria Artis, Jana Davenport and a few other individuals that wish to remain anonymous.
I could end this blog now and leave you with the idea that everything was perfect and we raised a lot of money. However, since our blogs are raw, real and relevant, I have to share the other part. My team and I did a lot of things right. We learned a lot from last year and executed this year. The day after the event I was exhausted. My team was exhausted and we still had a lot ahead of us. We had to return the dishes to Ram Rental, return and put away the decorations, and most of all we had to patiently await the numbers. How much money did we make in ticket sales? How much did we bring in through donations? How much did we spend in various expenses and how much did we actually make? When Victoria Artis our treasurer sent those numbers through our Executive Council group text I could have fainted. I was so disappointed. We did not raise as much as I wanted. I felt like we spent way too much money on creating Mom Prom®. I felt like I had totally failed. I felt like I let down my team and my community.
Jessica Bravo, our Executive Advisor responded to our group text and spoke something that totally changed my sadness into joy. She said, "Pastor Alaine it takes on average 5 years before you start breaking a big profit for events that are started from the ground up. This is healthy growth." WHAT? Really Jessica? We are healthy? She works for the Chamber of Commerce and is used to raising tens of thousands through fundraisers, so I believe her.
My revelation? There will always be an enemy when God calls any of us to build something. (Notice, I said, when GOD calls us to build something.) Whether it is the enemy of our mind, or the doubts that spring up from the "inner me" or whether Sanballot and Tobiah shows up - keep building. Let Nehemiah 4:3-5 encourage you as it did me. It says, " Tobiah the Ammonite was with Sanballat. Tobiah said, “What do these Jews think they are building? If even a small fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!” 4 Nehemiah prayed and said, “Our God, listen to our prayer. These men hate us. Sanballat and Tobiah are insulting us. Make bad things happen to them. Make them ashamed, like people taken away as prisoners. 5 Don’t take away their guilt or forgive the sins they have done in your sight. They have insulted and discouraged the builders.”
Keep building ladies!
Shalom Aleichem
Alaine Strozier, Founder, CEO, President