Irish Christmas a Roaring Success
Irish Christmas a Roaring Success
Bob McCarthy’s Irish Christmas Fundraiser Brings in Record Crowd
Photos / Bob McCarthy Foundation
Bob McCarthy’s Irish Christmas this past Friday night (Dec. 1) at EBC was by far touted as the best ever. The largest crowd to date came out to celebrate the 18th annual Fundraiser with great live entertainment by the up-tempo Irish Band Crikwater. Asa Moss provided a bagpipe introduction march yielding to a great Irish dancer, Sophia Mesch, accompanied by the band. EBC’s champagne toast to Bob preceded the live auction hosted by Brooks LeFeber of brookslefeberauctions.com and at a frantic pace the bids started to soar.
Once again, bids for a great EVL-themed stainless steel fire pit created and donated by Barrett Price of Bear Metal Works in Buffalo skyrocketed. The custom fire pit saw rapid-fire bidding back and forth, finally being won by Anne Northrup, who is always a generous supporter. Bob’s original creations were sprinkled in throughout with a very unusual piece, The Contraption, going for $600. Ed Frederickson once again used his creative genius and woodworking skills to put together an array of hand-made gems in the Bob tradition. His beautiful ancient oak chest sold to Jeff Williams for $900.00. His very interesting applewood coat rack kicked off the auction with Al Adams finally winning out. A bourbon basket replaced the traditional Irish whiskey basket donated by Cynthia & Mike, sold to our always generous supporter, Sean Cornelius. Always popular, the Nickolson’s Condo on Anna Maria Island, was a frenzied back and forth bidding with Debbie Mazzariello finally prevailing. The auction was limited to 15 items, so again it was complimented with an Irish basket raffle with over 30 baskets of beautiful gifts. This raffle was organized by Erin Cornelius, Brooke Szpaicher, Mila Clauss & Niki Klein, and will be back next year.
This year’s event could not have happened without our host, the Ellicottville Brewing Company, who again went above and beyond to support Bob’s night! They are so generous to the Foundation donating the proceeds from special beer and wine sales to the fund. Brew Master Dan Minner had many great beers on tap to the delight of many in the crowd. Laura Kohler, Beth Hervey & Mike Rogers’ expertise made staging this party easy and fun for the committee while EBC’s spacious Beer Hall and their friendly staff were the perfect partners.
It was obvious that many of our benefactors opened up their hearts and wallets to support The Bob McCarthy Foundation’s Santa’s Workshop & the Santa Sheriff program. The auction was the second best ever to last year, but not by much. As always, a number of generous people chose to donate directly to the Foundation. As these donations normally continue through the end of the year, we anticipate surpassing previous years highs by over 15%, which is truly amazing.
PandaGoat Media, that is Brenda Perks and Meaghan Lucarelli, did a great job on the artwork and promotional material. Heather Sullivan of Heather J. Sullivan Consulting worked her magic with the website and Facebook. Brooks LeFeber hosting the auction, as always, made it both entertaining and successful with a local’s flair.
As is always the case our great local publications, EllicottvilleNOW & The Villager provided promotion of the event both online and in print, helping us greatly. The Chamber of Commerce’s online promotion featured with The Stroll weekend was also greatly appreciated
A special thanks to Dina’s, EBC, Katy’s, Madigans, The Silver Fox & Villaggio who brought “A Taste of Ireland” to new culinary level for the event. The food was fabulous and sold out quickly. Ellicottville’s home bakers (too many to thank) whose special desserts are done as a tribute to their friend Bob and this tradition. We also thank the many local businesses who supported the basket raffle with their generous gifts. Many friends of Bob McCarthy helped make Friday night a success, you know who you are and we thank you all.
When asked how this started, McCarthy would answer “It started with a little magic”. To be sure the magic came in the form of Ellicottville’s residents, both permanent and part timers who bid or donated to the cause. The real magic is that this event is helping a number of local families have a better Christmas through Santa’s Workshop & the Santa Sheriff program.
Bob, we all miss you but we will continue your tradition of giving. The Bob McCarthy Foundation (www.bobmccarthyfoundation.com) wishes all of you a great holiday season – We will see you next year. Thank you Ellicottville!