Friday evening April 11, the Church of the Ascension, in northern Virginia, hosted a benefit evening for the Mission. This was the first recent event of its kind, and was an unqualified success. The trip from Tennessee to Washington, although a bit wearing (I'm not much of a road warrior!), was accomplsihed without any complications — up Friday, back Saturday in time for services at Annunciation.
The evening began with coffee (Mission Bleu, of course), fine Haitian rum, and snacks provided by the parish. The thoroughly rebuilt presentation on the Mission (several days' work!) went smoothly — no equipment failures (except for the elevator needed to reach the 3rd floor space being used temporarily as a church home for the parish!). For most of those present, it was their first "live" contact with the Missionl.
We concluded with a benefit auction — the remaining bottles of rum and a number of Haitian folk art paintings, as well as the drawing for a raffle funded by three local businesses.
The event raised a little in excess of $12,000 for the Mission, against expenses for travel, purchase of rum and paintings, etc. (other expenses for the evening were kindly contributed by the parish) of about $300.
Consider: perhaps your parish or organization could sponsor a similar evening. Have laptop and projector, will travel!