#ATD2016 The Event

On the night of the event, 30 ladies and girls gathered in a local town with our camo and crowns! The anticipation was overwhelming as this was the largest event so far.  Previous years had numbered 18-20 ladies.  Even that number humbles me.  How did we reach 30? 

A friend of mine at church asked if her daughter could come because she had expressed interest.  Another lady brought her daughter last year.  I mulled it over briefly and thought, why not?  I don’t go into details on the night of the event about the atrocities of human trafficking.  My personal children know that there are illegal slaves in our country and home state.  They know some things, but they don’t yet need to know all at the tender ages of elementary school children that they are.  And so the invitation was extended to the daughters of the ladies who were invited.  Thus we reached a grand total of 30 plus ladies and girls at the event this year. 

We started our night at a local hunting mega-store with a friendly competition at the kids’ arcade shooting range.  Yes, the ladies played the game.  I handed out quarters freely to the kids to play round after round, 20 shots for fifty cents.  Friends arrived and changed into the shirt for the evening.  Some found camo shirts or pants of their own.  We were a sea of green camo and sparkle! 

New friends after shooting competition.

We moved our party over to a local home cookin’ eatery.  Honestly, I think we overwhelmed them with our size, but I wanted to eat there for my birthday by golly!  We had three waitresses plus a few others helping out between all the tables we occupied.  I got the tip jar out, and people grabbed it right away.  We’ve done this a few times and I only had to explain it to a few.  The tip jar represents who we are, not the service we get.  Although, the service was really good!  I made the presentation at the end of the meal with a little speech about what we were doing.  The ladies were very appreciative, and there was applause all around. 

Every year I tell the story of the ladies that come together for this.  I’ll see if I can approach this task this year.  There are several overlapping groups of friends that come from all over the state of Texas.  Donations even came from as far away as Georgia! 

This year, I was particularly excited to have the original group of tiara loving friends back together in the same place with our sparkle on top!  This concept started when I worked in Smithville, and there are several ladies who come every year from that area, but one has been missing.  Shannon made it this year with Alicia and me to complete our trio.  It was the two of them that gave me my first crown.  It was with them that I developed this crazy need to display my royalty.  Thank you, Shannon and Alicia! 

Moving on with the group of teachers, there were several local Lockhart teachers who go to local churches other than mine and mine as well.  We all work to serve our community and share the love of Christ in our classrooms.  I love working with these ladies.    

That group of teachers overlaps the group of ladies that attend worship with me every Sunday morning.  I am very humbled by the number of ladies representing our congregation that join me every year.  This time, the event fell on the same evening as our church garage sale.  I know one mom in particular plays a huge role in that event, but she came to the ATD with both of her daughters for the very first time this year.  Thank you, Tara.  We also had several newbies from church attend: Liz, Liz, and Jennifer.  No, that was not a typo.  There were two ladies named Liz.  One just moved here from Arizona and jumped into this crazy group with both feet! 

My church wasn’t the only one represented.  My town wasn’t the only town.  My school wasn’t the only school.  Women from all over this state are coming together to acknowledge the problem of slavery.  Collectively we come together and take a stand to say that we are not ok with it.  And we are doing something about it! 

Thank you , Bonnie, Skylar, Liz, Lilly, Rebekah, Liz, Jennifer, Tara, Emily, Marion, Suzanne, Shannon, Alicia, JoAnne, Deidra, Patricia, Stacy, Jennifer, Sherry, Joy, Diana, Tanya, Jenna, Gale, Alex, Shelby, Courtney, Macy, Lora, and Taylor.  Thank you for coming that evening.  And thank you to all the other amazing people who donated and were not able to come that night.  We raised $1326!