WE ARE HERE – WE LIVE – WE LOVE

The 7^th Annual CAPTIVATING INTERNATIONAL Charity Auction, Shenzhen, China.

How quickly a year goes by. Saturday, October 17 marked Captivating Internationals 7^th Annual Charity Gala & Auction once again at the Futian Shangri-la, Shenzhen China.  Attended by a record breaking (and maximum capacity) 597 guests from Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the evening was awarded the “best event ever” label by many long-term event attendees. Our thanks to an amazing auction committee and team for so many hours of detailed work. The results were worth it.
The evening started with a hive of activity around the silent auction items with 248 items up for bid from generous donors. The entertainment started with a fantastic and moving opening dance by girls from the Seng Girls Home who are now enrolled in an advanced study dance program in Xining, Qinghai. Their dancing was amazing and immediately lead into an emotional solo dance performance by one of the girls, Damchu Drolma, to the theme song from the 2012 World Humanitarian Day, “I was here” by Beyonce’.  This song set the tone for the night as Andrew Colquhoun, Co-Founder & CEO of Captivating, presented the case that We are Here (all of us live privileged lives), We LIVE (we all want to live large and full lives that somehow make a difference), We LOVE (we all have the capacity to bring hope to a girl who needs us and say, “That girls problem – it stops with me!”). We can all be HERO’s by making a decision to do more than just CARE about an issue – but to step across the “Hero Line” and take action.

Tyler Colquhoun (14yrs) and Dawa (Seng Girls Home) stole the show with their stage presence as they thanked key people, with extra special time being taken to thank the amazing Auction Committee lead by the wonderful duo of Lynn Velez and Dana Milne.
For the first time at this annual event, it was wonderful to hear presentations from some of Captivating’s key partners – Carrie Lhamo (Shamtse – Qinghai); Dockpo Tra (LOVEQTRA – Qinghai) and Ragendra Gautam (3 Angels Nepal). Their passion was clearly evident as was their gratitude for the amazing support that comes from the Shenzhen and Hong Kong community. Greg Schultheis, Captivating board member and auctioneer extraordinaire performed brilliantly at keeping a capacity crowd actively engaged in the auctioning of 41 items donated by amazing sponsors. And, in a display of unity and passion to “DO LIFE BIG”, students from QSI and SIS, along with girls from the Seng Girls Home danced to a wonderful high energy song fitting so well into our theme for the night – live a full life and be sure to “live, love and give every chance you get”.

One of the amazing highlights of the night was the Doll and Balloon fund-raising campaign – raising money specifically to fund the interception and rescue of girls who fall victim to Human Trafficking in Nepal. Melissa Vieira from Maison de la Poupee and her husband worked tirelessly for 5 months to create 80 beautiful Nepalese dolls for auction. With tears in her eyes, Melissa saw all 80 dolls snapped up in less than 5 minutes by eager guests, raising RMB80k. These, along with 125 balloons will see close to 300 girls intercepted at 3 Angels Nepal and Captivating border monitoring stations in Nepal in the coming months. Ragendra, the director of 3AN who was present to witness this, was amazed at the response and full of gratitude.
The last performance of the night was the King Gesar Opera by the Seng Girls – a shortened 6 minute performance especially for the event. For many of the girls, this is their future with 14 of them enrolled in a government sponsored program that will see them complete high-school with a dance diploma.

The evening concluded with Suzanne Salg leading us all in the Electric Slide” with DJ Pax then transitioning the evening into dancing and celebration.
Our special thanks AGAIN this year to the wonderful team at Riviera Events who, along with DJ Pax, ran our audio/lighting and general flow of the whole event. They are a wonderfully dedicated team who for the past 3 years have performed this for us pro-bono. For a night that packs in a lot of elements, we cannot recommend these people enough.
So, how did we go? A massive RMB1.36million was raised to support the work of Captivating in Western China and Nepal.  This will enable Captivating to reach-out to over 5,000 children over this next year.  We can’t thank everyone enough for this result.

They say, it takes a village to raise a child and this is so true.  Our village of volunteers, donors, and supporters are helping to raise Captivating International to its fullest potential.  Lynn Velez has been the driving force from the very beginning of this Annual Charity event. And for the second year now, Dana Milne has been co-chair with her. Together, they put countless hours into planning every step leading with incredible support from an amazing committee. Our VERY special thanks to an amazing team: Jill Bieber, Sara Doerrier, Jaclyn Foutz, Lynn Levy, Crystal Matterson, Kris Quinn, Sherley Reese, Susanne Salg, Virginie Simonnet, Ashley Stahle, Claire Taylor, Yvette Taylor, Carrie Turner, Melissa Vieira, and Vivian Yuan. And, thank you to our dedicated Captivating staff who spent months preparing, and SO MANY volunteers who were involved in helping to make this night something to remember.  You are Here – You Live – You Love.

We also want to thank our growing list of International schools who are getting behind this event. Your attendance and support is fantastic and greatly appreciated. Special thanks to QSI and SIS who have been in support of our work in China since 2008.

Achieving our financial goals would not be possible without the sponsorship of these amazing companies:

Also, thank you to the following companies who supported our event:

Graphic Design team:  Yoha Shi and Stephen Lau

Event Planning Company:  Riviera Events

LED Screen: MasterPiece PR Asia Ltd

In a meeting of the Captivating Board that took place the day following the event, Andrew Colquhoun, Co-Founder and CEO of Captivating International – a Hong Kong registered charity (#91/9723) stated, “The success of the Shenzhen Annual Charity auction sets the tone for what the next year of activity for Captivating is like. Once again, we will move into a new year full of confidence and hope of bringing suffering to an end for thousands of girls and hope of a better tomorrow for them. We will meet them in their problem, and find a way out”.

Dean Beveridge, Chairman of the Board for Captivating stated, “Attending this event is such a motivation for me personally. Captivating is not about band-aid solutions, but solving real problems with real solutions. The needs are so many, and nothing can be done without financial backers and generous donors. Seeing this community as a motivated example of that is a real confidence builder for an aggressive program.”

Ragendra Gautam, Founder & Director of Captivating partner, 3 Angels Nepal stated, “I had no idea of the scale of this event. This is the biggest and most enthusiastic event I have attended. I am in tears to think that a large community like this exists in China passionate about helping girls in my country, Nepal. Being here at this event has given me a motivational lift to push and fight even harder for our joint programs. Thank you Captivating, and thank-you Shenzhen”.

Keep up-to-date on what we do with these funds by following our regular project stories on Facebook, WeChat or LinkedIn.

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