Muffin's go to the ball

Recently it has been a particularly crazy time for us with some truly amazing and magical things happening, just over two weeks ago our corporate sponsor Rosemount Financial Solutions held their annual charity ball in aid of Muffin's.  Now before I tell you about the amazing night we had let me just introduce you to Rosemount who are a big part of our Muffin life.  Rosemount became our corporate sponsor three years ago and have been played a huge part in getting us to where we are today.  They have helped pay for some events, they have enabled us to buy our own hoist, they have helped grant wishes of some of very poorly muffins,j they also donated us a massive office printer, I mean it is seriously massive,they had to take it apart to fit in the office. but it has helped us so much.  So yes they as a company raise us money but they also do so much more. They are in constant emails and phone calls with us through out the year to find out how they can help and what they can do for us. They support has been out of this world.

The night of the ball arrived, I was slightly rushed getting into my dress as I had to arrive earlier than others and had been at prior engagement that afternoon but I made it on time and there we all were in our finery, having made our way to the venue, our brand new van was sat in the car park, wrapped up with ribbons and filled with balloons. I, Sam, Julie and Alex were beside ourselves with excitement. There was definitely a moment of "Oh my this is actually happening!!!" You might think but it's just a van? But it is not just a van, it is a van with our logo on and covered in spots who couldn't love that? Besides the fact that it look's incredible it will transform our life at Muffin's. People do not often realise that to put on the events we do we have to move a HUGE amount of stuff.  Everything from the food, to the toys to the crash mats come out of storage and it takes a great deal of planning weeks before hand normally as to who will move what and when. So the van meant that we know longer have to fill our cars with paint, play dough, musical toys that turn themselves on when your driving around that make you jump a mile. Finally after four years we could all have our cars back. Oh the the pure relief and joy of such a simple thing.

Once everybody had arrived and been given the obligatory glass of champagne the speeches begin. The CEO of Rosemount Ahmed makes a speech where you can really tell as he talks how passionate Rosemount are about Muffin's and the work we do. He's also very good at encouraging people to give those all important donations which of course is why we are all there. Then it's my turn, and oh the nerves, it is the biggest speech that I make of the year. People say I am good at public speaking and have a good voice to listen to.  People's lovely comments aside it's not actually a part of my job that I enjoy doing but it is a necessary part, when you are a Chief Executive it does come with the territory. So now it's my turn to take the microphone,  there is always a moment when it is feels slightly surreal to be standing in front of a packed room about to speak being acutely aware most of the people there I don't even know and they have paid good money to come to a charity ball for something that literally started in a bedroom. I remembered to put my drink down as trying to carry to many things and speak will just end in disaster where I am concerned, I take a deep breathe and begin to talk. To my relief my speech gets much applause and people come up to me congratulating me on delivering a 'powerful and inspiring speech. Well I don't know about it being powerful and I am not a fan of the word inspiring but what I can say is my speech is delivered from the heart, it's honest and truthful and I do not sugar coat the harder parts of our job.

We all enjoyed a delicious meal with a few bottles of fine wine, per table I might add not just to ourselves and then the auction begins. Ooh the anticipation is building it's the highlight of the ball and I know one of the prizes is an all expenses trip to Dubai. You cannot say that the prizes are not amazing but will people bid and will their bids be high enough? Well oh my days what a thrill it was to watch all these people bid, with bidding wars breaking out across the room.  The auction raises a jaw dropping £6,000 and that did not include the ticket sales and raffle that Rosemount had also run. The total was a mind blowing £9,503!! All we did was turn up, make a speech and eat some food. How mad is that?! But the night was not over yet the DJ starts and we danced the night away until midnight when exhausted we finally called a night and went home.

I got into bed that night almost unable to process just what a wonderful night I, the team and Muffin's had just had. I and our team truly believe in our Muffin's and their ability to do whatever they can but to think we now had serious sponsors who also believed it. It almost didn't feel real. We had come so far in such a short space of time and I was more in love with my Muffin Life than ever before.