Fun(d) the Dream Raises Over $12,000

On Saturday, July 20, Weather NJ & Friends threw a mid-summer dinner party at The Union Market & Gallery for David’s Dream & Believe Cancer Foundation (DDBCF). The party featured live music, great food, craft brew, award-winning wine, fine artwork and generous donations from the community—all sourced locally. A $12,850.87 profit was generated from the event and has already been distributed by DDBCF to patient applicants battling cancer diagnoses.

I wish to give the largest thank you possible to the local event sponsors, eateries, businesses, artists, volunteers and event guests that helped make this event such a success. It brings warm feelings to my heart to see such a massive collaboration of friends, family and community for such a good cause.

This year was a hot one! Event temperatures were in the 90s with heat indices above 100 thanks to a wave of unbearable humidity. It was so hot that our photographers and videographers faced tremendous challenges involving overheating hardware. Even still the event saw a great turnout and result which is a true testament to community resolve. Therefore the first thank you goes out to all attending guests of this year’s event.

Additionally we wish to thank the following contributors and participants of Fun(d) the Dream 2019:

To Dan Mueller, Financial Services Professional with New York Life, for an extremely generous presenting sponsorship:

To The Wright Law Firm, Tuckerton Seaport and The Union Market & Gallery for event gold sponsorship:

To Alisa Molbert Realtor, Reclaimed NJ, The Barrel Mobile Bar, Walt McCollum Plumbing Heating & Cooling, Within the Frame Photography, Landguard Title Services, Greg Molyneux Photography, Newsom Builders and Contractors and Jennifer Hornik of G. Anderson Agency for event silver sponsorship.

To Empire Weather Consulting, Envision Innovative Solutions, Parsons Seafood, Investors Bank, 18 Mile Productions, My Sweets & Treats, Manahawkin Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, McCue Captains Agency, Chapter 2 Thrift Boutique, Clearly Giacobe, Alfieri & Jacobs and Spring Lake Freezer Company for event Bronze sponsorship.

To August & Oak for serenading us with beautiful music. Brook Milano and Ryan Walsh nailed it!

To Viking Village for the discounted freshest jumbo sea scallops possible. On the day of the event I picked up the scallops from an arriving boat holding scallops that were in the ocean that morning. That’s likely 2-3 days fresher than purchasing from secondary markets on Long Beach Island, which is already super fresh.

To Valenzano Family Winery for the discounted tasty wine.

To Pinelands Brewing Company for the discounted craft brew.

To my wife Jennifer Carr who could not attend this year due to her late-stage of pregnancy. Our daughter was born on August 5, 2019 and we are all doing very well! Jennifer is to thank for the large majority of event planning, promotional graphic design, event décor, event material packing and many other event-related duties. I am blessed to have such an amazing and talented wide!

To Dani Corso of The Makers Festival for event planning, operations and social media marketing.

To Chef Kyle Baddorf for curating the event food menu.

To Dan Mueller for providing the sound system.

To The Union Market & Gallery staff for all other food items and food service.

To Ben Wurst of Reclaimed NJ for the construction and operation of the raw bar.

To Kyle Hoffman, Jessica Morgan, Jack Gamble, Kathy Nowicki for critical event operations. I suffered from the heat that day to the point of needing to sit down for a few hours inside the air conditioning.  These individuals really stepped-up in event execution and for that I am truly appreciative!

To John Homenuk and John Molyneux for holding down the bar.

To all artists and contributors of the silent auction.

To all other volunteers of Fun(d) the Dream who helped make the event a success including Greg Molyneux, Jeff Ruemeli, Dallas Fitzpatrick, Matt Abotto, Joe Bilotta, Jacky Lindeborn, Nicki Lee Horvay, and Julia Townsend.

Lastly to David Caldarella David’s Dream and Believe Cancer Foundation for having such a great cause to support! If you’re looking for a way to help bring great positive change to families battling cancer diagnoses I highly recommend you get involved!

I hope to see you at our future experiments in charitable social fundraising. Have a great day and please be safe! JC on behalf of Weather NJ & Friends