65 Roses Charity Sports Auction

Happy, happy Monday ya'll!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!!!!

Mine was great!

I left off telling you guys that I was attending a charity event last week.

The charity event is called 65 Roses Sports Auction to benefit Cystic Fibrosis.

This year the event was again held in the Sheraton Hotel at Station Square in Pittsburgh. In the past it was held at McFadden's bar (I personally enjoyed that more).

When it was moved to the Sheraton the food was better at first (sit down nice meal of stuffed chicken breast, etc) but now it has declined to less than bar food - LOL! In my humble opinion...

So, I had gone for about four years when it was at McFadden's and it was hosted by the Steelers player Brett Keisel. He always recruited really good, current, 1st string players like Ben Roethlisberger, Troy Polamalu, Hines Ward, etc. I have some great footballs from those days!!! Then it was turned over to Cam Heyard to host and now to player Stephan Tuitt and it just keeps going further down hill. This year we only had like two players I have heard of and the rest were alum (from the 1977 and 1979 Steelers and they were not even popular alum).  I am sure this sounds terrible but when you pay $150 donation for the football (and you know how great it used to be) it is a let down when no popular players show up.

Anyway, this was the first year for Tuitt to host it so I thought it may turn around so I attended again this year.  Unfortunately the players that showed were no better than the past few years. Needless to say, it is still a charity donation but I will not go again.

So let me give the down low....

Here is the welcome sign to the event thanking the sponsors...

Here is me and Kathy that I attended with at our lucky 13 table - LOL!!!

And here is the table of Steelers (past and present) lined up to sign the balls...you take your football down the line and get it signed (one at a time) by each player!  It was amazing when it was the popular players!!! That is Stephan Tuitt #91 in the black sweater talking to thew first person in line to be signed. And then down the line was J. Hargrave #79, R. Nix #45, I Nwokeji #64, and T. Matakevich #44...those are the current players. Then there was four alumni..Charlie Batch whom we all know and love (he does soooo much charity throughout Pittsburgh), Robin Cole, Ron Loder and Edmund Nelson.

 Here is the completely signed football...it is going to be a present for a family member so I cannot say who (in case they actually read my blog - LOL!)

After the signing was dinner...I took a little of everything to show you all what the selection was...they had pork and burger sliders, mini pierogies, mac and cheese and green beans. With the exception of the green beans; it was a carb fest! LOL! They called it tailgate food - I guess that is true.

 And dessert...they did have every dessert under the sun!

 After dinner and dessert was a presentation called "A Day in the Life" and it was a sweet little girl that was diagnosed when she was three with CF. She explained all about their life with the disease and what is required daily just to live "normally". So at least our donations help!!

Then was held an auction for so autographed memorabilia and also a silent acution.  Here is an example of the silent auction items...

A signed copy of Madden 2019 (signed by Antonio Brown himself) and an X Box...

And this football signed by JuJu Smith-Schuster....

 Here is the bidding sheet for it when we left....

We did not bid on anything so we left before they collected the silent action items.

It was a fun night out with friends but I would not go again. I have a friend on the board of CF and I have given her this feedback and they do not seem to care enough to change anything so I guess that says it all. I am bummed it has gone downhill rather than grown better.

Here are the past posts I could find...

2013
2014

How was your weekend?!?! What did you do? Anything exciting?!?! Ever get disappointed when an event is not what you are hoping it would be?

Happy Monday ya'll!!!

Hobnobbing with the Rich and Famous

Oh what a night!!

Last night was amazing!

You can access the article that the Steelers wrote about the fundraiser HERE.

Following is MY version of what happened - hee hee!

It really was an amazing night out with a great friend from work (shout of to Kathleen) and a wonderful group of people that support and run the Cystic Fibrosis fundraisers.

This is the view from inside at McFadden's which is where it was held.  This bar/restaurant is located right by both Heinz Field and PNC Park on North Shore Drive in Pittsburgh.

 

This little doosie pulled up as we were waiting for the event to start! It is awesome outside but is even cooler inside!!! 

 

This is a shot of me with the owner inside the bus.  The bus was created and paid for by this private owner and he brings it to all the events and tries to encourage the players to sign it...it is pretty amazing!!!!  Shout out to Jeff!!! Hope to see  ya soon!  He was so much fun to chat and hang out with!

 We had an awesome buffet and the opportunity to bid on a bunch of amazing memorabilia and then it was time to get our balls signed.  Everyone paid $200 entrance fee to get your ball and admission. Then you get to take your ball through the lineup and get every player there to sign it.  AWESOME!!! Below you can see how it was all setup.

This is a shot of all the guys that signed last night... they included Brett Keisel, Troy Polamalu, Cameron Heyward, Heath Miller, Ryan Clark, Maurkice Pouncey, Ziggy Hood, Steve McLenden, Al Woods, Hebron Fangupo and Brian Arnfelt from the practice squad! Awesome night!That is them below in no particular order...

Here is a shot of my completed football - this is going to my brother-in-laws man cave as payment for all the work he does on my car free of charge...thanks Steve!!! At least he will love it and appreciate it (I would just stuff it in a closet and never look at it - HEE).

 Finally, my favorite part of the night...I got to get a picture with Brett Keisel of the Steelers. He was so nice! There were so many people waiting for pictures and he GRACIOUSLY accepted all requests for pictures - he really was so nice about it.  Here is my friend from work, Kathy, and I with Brett.

 And here is just me and Brett...

ANNNNNNNNNND zoomed in as this is my new profile picture...

 I am so grateful to my friend Kathleen for inviting me to this awesome event and as you can see it was an amazing night and time...

TGIF!!! Hope you all have an awesome weekend!!!