No one enjoys leaving a party early more than I do. Though I can step up and be social in a pinch, I am not by nature a social creature.
One on one, great. Small groups, good.
Big groups? Awful.
Raising money for Samuel’s House is the driver behind the annual Speed On The Water Key West Bash. Photo by Jeff Helmkamp copyright Helmkamp Photos.
I don’t how many people stopped by the 13th annual Speed On The Water Key West Bash benefitting Samuel’s House last night. A few thousand is my best guess.
And yet I stayed till the bitter end. I made it all the way to 10 p.m. I believe I heard the Hallelujah choir as I stepped into my Uber.
OK, I was one of the hosts, though that’s never stopped me from bailing early before. At least a dozen friends including Jeremy Tschida of the Super Stock-class Wozencraft/TFR team expressed wonderment at my staying power.
“I keep waiting for the Irish Goodbye,” Tschida said, then laughed.
Note to Tschida? Waiting for an Irish Goodbye is a fool’s game. They just happen. Regardless.
The Key West Bash is akin to an extended family reunion in the go-fast boating community during the past 13 years. That’s the main attraction for most folks. Yet the reason it happens is raising money for a nonprofit organization that provides a much-need service in its own community.
I don’t have yet have a fundraising total yet. Best guess is that it will land in the $30,000 to $50,000 range. Open for the rest of the weekend, the Samuel’s House GoFundMe campaign launched a month has $18,550 so far. (Another $50 came in as I wrote this.) As he left last night, Larry Bleil of Race World Offshore told me to put him down for $2,000.
Rather than raffle a gorgeous shot-ski created by the one and only Stephen Miles, Tim Hill of Fort Myers Offshore called an audible, climbed onto a truck bed, grabbed a makeshift micro-phone and auctioned it off for $9,000. Boom.
What I don’t know, at least for now, is how much money was donated to Samuel’s House directly during the party itself. The shelter’s deputy director, Maria Protopsaltis and her crew had that their exhibit on Greene Street outside the Pickle’s Pub Host venue and they looked busy.
Fingers crossed that busy translates to busy taking donations.
Of course, I set $100,000 as a fundraising total for this year’s affair. As poet Robert Browning wrote, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” That’s my borrowed story and I’m sticking to it.
Plus, my reach and grasp matched last night. I made it to the end.