Pancit Palooza

 

Candace: Chris and I are desperate. We want to have a family so badly and will literally hulk style move mountains to achieve this. Since science did not work out for us, we are back at square 1. We are also peering into a bank account long over-drafted from countless surgeries, procedures and medications. Will that stop us? Nope, we fund raise. (Keep reading, there is no sales pitch here…we promise).

 

Groveling, Sure! Standing on the corner? Yep, I will wear a coat. Become a lady of the night…I want a baby, but maybe that’s a little to far. Chris and I made baby bottles.  We taped a card with a small snippet of our story to a baby bottle and begged local businesses to let us leave it on their counter. I got a lot of NO’S. It’s a bad economy, I get it. As my muse, I had a friend in college who lived by this quote: If I ask a 100 people to help, at least one person will say yes, it’s just statistics. (That’s the clean version, the original had to do with how his night would end. Nuf’ said) Also, being in sales I can handle rejection. We found 2 businesses that said YES! Not only did one say yes, they offered to host a day where they would give us 10% if their sales. They must have noticed my Filipino mojo emanating because after all of the NOs we got, not only was our baby bottle front and center on the counter, they would let us host a fundraiser at their restaurant. Awesome, now how do we go about it? I printed fliers, tweeted, FB, carrier pigeoned, guilted, whatever it took to get folks to show up. It wasn’t too hard because who doesn’t like Filipino food? I am right? AND the folks at Totoy’s bring great pride for all who fly the Filipino flag, we frequented there many times before so this was just icing on the hopeful baby cake.



 

 

Chris: We begged Lynn to us come in the Friday before our Pancit-Palooza to help with prep. She said that they had everything under control. -As an aside, Lynn and her husband have a remarkable family dynamic with their children who work as a unified front in the restaurant. Candace and I hope to have that kind of relationship with our children.- Back to Pancit Palooza. Saturday rolled around and Candace and I showed up first thing. We walked in ready to do anything to show the Totoy’s crew how much we appreciated the generosity. I decided to man the steam table and Candace went out to interact with everyone that came in. Let’s just say that although I have been around the Filipino food block, I was introduced to a ton of food I never tasted before and it was all amazing. Now, I needed to sell it.

 

We hoped for a good showing and our family and friends didn’t disappoint. Shortly after 11 we had the place nearly bursting. Good food, yes. Great cause, of course! We brought our shirts that we are selling in our Etsy shop to the event and Candace was peddling those as well.

 

 

We were overwhelmed with how many people showed up!

 

 

Before we knew it, lunch was nearly over and we though we had seen just about everyone that had said they would come. We were wrong! Little did we know Candace’s brothers were standing on the corner with a sign yelling full throttle, at cars to go to the restaurant. They were singing, dancing, and doing everything they could to get people to eat there. It was cold to! Top that. These guys stood out in the cold for hours, shouting at people to eat at Totoys, all to help us. We were incredibly touched and Candace lost a bit of mascara due to an emotional eye leak.

 

 

Best brothers ever!

 

 

Direct quote: “Try the fried rice … it’s really nice!  Try the lo-mein, it’s insane!”

PS My dad (Candace’s) made the sign, he rocks!

 

 

Dinner came fast and we saw another rush of people. Our friends and family showed up in a huge way, people came from over 50 miles away. As dinner started to wind down, Lynn started looking at the sales for the day. Pancit Palooza was a huge success!! We fed everyone, felt great that so many people show us Filipino love, and were able to raise money for our family building adventure! We thanked Lynn and her family for a great experience, helped clean everything that we could, and went home. I don’t think we got both feet in the front door before we fell asleep, overwhelmed with the generosity of friends, family and total strangers!

 

C&C with our new Totoys Family