Last Friday was one of the busiest I’ve ever seen in the area, and I’ve seen a lot of them. We had the North Dakota State Bison playing in the opening round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament in Seattle. The North Dakota State Class B Basketball Tournament was in its second day in Bismarck. The University of North Dakota was playing hockey with St Cloud. There were basketball tournaments going on the Minnesota side of the border as well. And that’s just sports! There were also school plays, dances and concerts.
But Friday night I was more than delighted to be the emcee of the 5th Annual Mixed Stag fundraiser for Riding on Angel’s Wings where more than 200 came to support this wonderful program. It came up fast! There was an emergency because the gentleman who was supposed to emcee all of a sudden was in the hospital for gall bladder surgery. Riding on Angel’s Wings is a therapeutic horseback riding program for youngsters with disabilities. This program helps promote mobility skills including balance and strength, social skills, attention and memory skills. You may here some noises coming from non-verbal children that you’ve never heard before due to the swaying motion of the horses gait. I’ve experienced that on my own with my son who once rode a horse and I heard a “weeee” coming from him that was totally new to my ears.
The benefit was held at the Hart Building at the Red River Valley Fairgrounds. Bette Shipley, who is the executive director along with her husband Kirk, was busy with volunteers Thursday night setting things up for Friday’s Gala. Who knows how late they stayed up that night getting things ready and reworking the programs for the Friday night event. We chatted for a bit and I got the lowdown on what they’d like me to do and then got out of their busy way.
They started things out with a nice supper. There were items up for auction and Babler Auctioneers was on hand to take care of that. There was several of what they called small raffles. Tickets were sold and I would read off numbers and the winner would come up and claim a prize. The hottest prize was bacon. That’s right bacon! I would read off the prizes in the upcoming raffle and there was always reaction when that word “bacon” left my lips. There’s something about you folks and your bacon! The crowd would cheer when the first winner past on the bacon and they knew they still had a chance. You’ve never seen anything like it.
And talk about generous people! One gentleman donated a special stool for a child, he then bought it back himself for $360.00 and then gave it back and auctioned it off again for $250.00. Over $600 and all for the love of this special program called Riding on Angel’s Wings.
The Shipley’s have a wonderful staff to help run things and there are too many to list here. Because of people and businesses, and you know who you are, you help keep this program running with the huge success it has become known for. I was more than happy to pinch hit for Vince Babler this year as emcee. Here’s wishing him a speedy recovery from surgery. For more info on Riding on Angels Wings go to their website. www.ridingonangelswings.org