An Afternoon Tea at the Rock House

On March 20th, our spring got off to a dramatic start with an absolutely amazing event, an “Afternoon Tea and Silent Auction”. Cheryll Gillespie and Sam Shakura, the dynamic duo of interior designers known as Rock House Style, opened their stunningly beautiful, lakefront, “Rock House” to over 100 guests.

The afternoon began with guests checking in wearing their best “tea” hat. The selection of hats seen at this event was truly amazing. The amount of thought and effort put into every style of hat you can imagine was outstanding.

THE SILENT AUCTION
The guests then had a chance to browse the over 100 auction items laid out on numerous tables though out the homes’ dramatic living room, as well, take a look out one of the huge floor to ceiling windows to watch some of our bunnies playing in the enclosed courtyard. The list of businesses who donated auction items is long and our gratitude never ending. Auction items ranged from spa packages, jewelry, wine baskets, photography, landscape pieces all the way to “one of a kind” pieces of art. Thank you to Sam who worked endlessly on securing auction items and making set up seamless. As an added bonus of cuteness, placed between all the auction items were photos of our very own bunnies; just to remind everyone what this event was really about.

THEN IT WAS TIME FOR THE TEA
The tables were set with a bunny theme, and everywhere you looked a rabbit could be found, even down to the tasty bunny cookies on bunny shaped platters. These along with a plethora of other treats were prepared by Cheryl herself who spent the days leading up to the event baking and decorating morning noon and night in between her busy schedule.

The tea was served in teapots of every shape, size and color by a team of volunteers dressed in black and white. The tea cups of every variety possible were laid out on round tables decorated in white. The display in its entirety was astounding.

During tea there were speeches about TRACS and what we do as well as “carrots” were sold table to table as an additional fundraiser.

The amount of support shown to TRACS with the response to this event was incredible. The auction items donated for the event were astounding, and the support overwhelming. By the end of the 4 hour event we had raised just over $12,000. We could not be more pleased with the result.

It was heartwarming to have a community come together and give so much for an organization that is entirely volunteer run. Our gratitude to Cheryl and Sam for organizing and hosting this event is never-ending and we are hoping to talk them into a repeat of this wonderful event next spring.