Hello Lovlies, the season for parties has arrived and mine started with a generous evening booked to attend my first charity event, black tie in fact (perks of my husbands job!) The Dream Factory Charity had organised a Monte Carlo Casino Ball at Orsitt Hall Hotel in Essex. Now for those of you who know me I love raising money for charity and am always giving and when my husband told me we were going I was very excited.
Now a little bit about the charity, founder Avril Mills created the Dream Factory in memory of her son Oliver who lost his battle with Leukemia aged nine. Oliver wanted to help grant dreams to young people when he grew up and Avril has made this happen. This charity helps young children and young adults up to the age of 25 have a dream come true, with an ever growing celebrity following Avril has successful made The Dream Factory a success with ever growing donations and a team of volunteers. This amazing charity has already helped over 300 children and young adults.
Arriving at the event for 6.15pm we were greeted at a cocktail reception with showgirls and trays of champagne, the venue looked amazing, Christina Aguilera Burleque music was playing the mood was already set for a glamorous evening. We headed for our table, where we enjoyed a delicious 3 course meal followed by coffee and chocolates.
Throughout the evening we heard of the wonderful dreams the charity had already help grant and we were even fortunate to hear from 3 amazing young adults of there experience and how the Dream factory changed there lives by granting a dream come true. It was truly amazing to hear how so much love and effort has gone into helping young people who really deserve the things that we sometimes take for granted every day.
At this point I felt very overwhelmed with emotion until the auction started. Well, as silly as it sounds the amount of money donated through auctioning of signed memorabilia, jewellery, days out etc; it was so nice to be in a room full of people that wanted to donate to this charity. The auction was very entertaining, Comedian Terry Alderton was the nights auctioneer and he did a brilliant job, I was in stitches of laughter such a nice and humble man.
The night continued with the casino and dancing to some great music, as the night didn't end there; donations were flowing with casino money everywhere! I have never been one for gambling and had no idea what was going on so my husband and his work friend explained the game of roulette and I tried my luck. It must of been beginners luck as I finished with so many chips that I couldn't stop winning, the table cleared so I cashed in to find out later in the night that I had indeed come 1st place in winning at the casino and won an iPad (I have never won anything in my life) My daughter will definitely enjoy an iPad so I was very grateful.
I had such an amazing time and met some truly lovely people, such a great cause. Please check out
The Dream Factory as they are always looking for donations and volunteers.
Thank you to Avril and her wonderful team of friends for such a great evening I truly hope they made lots of money to help even more young people live there dream!
