After DeSales University power outage, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society fundraising dinner moved to Bethlehem with less than 24 hours' notice
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was planning to host a "Bourbon and Bets" fundraising dinner at DeSales University. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society had to relocate a major fundraiser from DeSales University due to power outages. The "Bourbon and Bets" fundraising dinner was set to take place at DeSales, with over 130 people expected to attend. Elaine Zelker, who had planned the event since November, received the call at 5 p.m. with less than 24 hours' notice. Zelker immediately began trying to salvage the event, switching venue to ArtsQuest in Bethlehem. Executive Chef Julie Marble of Levy Restaurants was tasked with feeding over 130 guests within 24 hours.
Published : a month ago by Rob Manch in Health
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Thanks to widespread power outages from the storm Wednesday, a major fundraiser had to be relocated with less than 24 hours' notice.
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was planning to host a "Bourbon and Bets" fundraising dinner at DeSales University, but the whole campus shut down when the power went out. It was about 5 p.m. Wednesday, as the rain pounded outside, that Elaine Zelker got the call with the bad news.
"I think I froze for about 30 seconds, and I was like, this can't really be happening," said Zelker.
In less than 24 hours, Zelker had a fundraiser for LLS scheduled at DeSales with more than 130 people coming.
"We've planned since November. I have a team of about 19 people behind me, and we were ready to go. So within 24 hours, I got a call that this is most likely not going to happen," said Zelker.
Zelker immediately started trying to salvage the event, and ended up on the phone with ArtsQuest in Bethlehem.
"Praise to God they had an opening for tonight, because there was nothing available months ago. So we wound up switching over immediately," said Zelker.
But ArtsQuest VP of Hospitality Susan Drexinger said finding a new venue was only the first step.
"Once I got the text in, I sent my text out to everybody and we all kind of worked out a special menu, special arrangements in the room, created all of the event orders and the diagrams, so all the teams knew about it," said Drexinger.
"I had staff come in around 11:30 today, so I brought them in about two hours early," said Executive Chef of Levy Restaurants Julie Marble.
Marble's job was now feeding more than 130 hungry guests in less than 24 hours, the tightest timeline she's ever had.
"Really it's just using the product we have, and we did get an order together quickly to provide for tonight," said Marble.
Once it was clear it could happen, Zelker got on the phones.
"We had over 135 coming, so I had to make sure they were aware of it. Email people, get our whole team to text and email and message people that it's been moved," said Zelker.
Topics: Academia