On Friday, May 1, Hephzibah’s Chicago Auxiliary hosted the first-ever Virtual Quarantine Olympics, a fun-filled night of games and virtual competitions that raised $4,500 for our children and families!
More than 150 participants, from across the U.S. and even as far away as London, joined via Zoom from the comfort of their homes in six rounds of exciting competitions of Flip Cup, Trivia, “The Hunt is On,” Stacker and more. Congratulations to Liam O’Connor, the big winner of the Quarantine Olympics, who scored a one-of-a-kind quarantine survival bag loaded with prizes like a sheet storm toilet paper blaster, shiatsu neck massager, coloring books and pens, a cute pizza blanket and much more!
The Quarantine Olympics was born from the collective creativity of our Chicago Auxiliary Board who took this opportunity to engage people in our mission and raise funds for our work.
“We all care so deeply about the children and families Hephzibah serves and we wanted to find a way to help out during this stressful time,” says Courtney Valderrama, president, Chicago Auxiliary. “So our talented auxiliary members all put our heads together and came up with a creative and fun way to engage our friends, families and colleagues virtually.”
One lucky winner “newlywed Liz Hay” from the “Fauci’s Angels” team won $590 from our 50/50 raffle. To add to the excitement, the raffle winner was selected in real-time for everyone to see.
A big thanks goes out to the Hephzibah Chicago Auxiliary Board for creating such a fun and interactive virtual fundraiser. It gave everyone involved something fun to do on a quarantined Friday night. A big shout out to the hard working planning committee including Courtney Valderrama, Lesley January, Christina Ewing, Diana Sanborn, Eric O’Hara, Jonathan Lopez, and John Pold—they spent days and many hours planning all aspects of the event. What an accomplishment!
“We’re so grateful to everyone for joining in this event and grateful to be able to support such important work,” Courtney said. “We’re always looking for new members who live or work in Chicago area to join our auxiliary. It’s an incredible team.” Learn more about joining our Chicago Auxiliary Board here.
