The Kiss a Pig gala is the largest black-tie fundraising event for the American Diabetes Association in the nation. If you didn't know, it's called "Kiss a Pig" because the first source of insulin actually came from pigs; it's also called that because the person who raises the most money has to, well, kiss a pig. At the beginning of the year, candidates are chosen to compete in their category - small business, large business, and Walmart/Sam's Club. This year, I was able to support Lance Belline, founder of Lighthouse Financial, in the small business category as his campaign manager. 

Neither of us had ever participated in anything like this before, so going into the year of fundraising we were excited, driven, and completely unaware of what was ahead. At our very first candidate meeting, we realized just what we had gotten ourselves into. We learned very quickly that we were in over our heads, as the other candidates knew all the right questions to ask and had all assembled campaign teams made up of 4-6 members who were all familiar with what fundraising for this event entailed. The small business fundraising record was just shy of $130,000, so we set our goal at $135,000. We knew we had a lot of work ahead, but we were even more eager than before to succeed.

I told Lance that I was ready to take this on with the resources we had, which meant I would be managing his campaign alone to support this amazing organization, as well as his son, who lives with type 1 diabetes. We had a long year ahead that ended up feeling like 5 minutes.

Because of the great relationships we had with our clients, we were able to gather direct donations, company matches, some really cool auction items, and a lot of support. About halfway through our campaign, we had already surpassed our $135,000 goal. We increased it to $150,000 with high hopes that we would meet it. In the end, we sold 14 tables, raised slightly over $100,000 in donations and company matches, and sold all of our auction items for a little more $30,000. This brought our fundraising total for the year to $190,092, more than any other small business candidate had ever raised in 20 years, and almost as much as the large business winner. We were beyond proud of what we and our support system accomplished, and we'll never forget the experience we had.

Throughout this journey, I learned just how capable I am and how to utilize my talents in ways that move mountains. I'm so excited to see where those talents take me and what else I can excel in along the way.