Baatar Hero » Mongol Rally » party

Poker Night

brian — Wed, 05 May 2010 09:41:24 +0000

They came to watch Mayweather vs. Mosley. They came to play poker, foosball and pong. And they came to raise money for Baatar Hero! Huge thanks goes out to our friends – Rob for hosting, and to Megan for organizing… they pulled together a fantastic group of players and spectators for our Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. Thanks also to all our friends who showed up to play and kept the tournament on track.

Thanks for hosting Rob!

With luck I played well enough to make it to the final table with high hopes of taking the whole pot down to go towards our rally cars. I couldn’t quite hold on though, and was the first elimination from that final table. I was taken out by Austin the Eliminator, who proceeded to confound and then beat each successive player.

Nice poker face Austin, you've got us all beat

It was a sight to behold as he took down nearly every hand. The final heads up saw Austin take all of the chips and the tournament top prize. Austin and top finisher Michael pleasantly surprised us when they generously donated their tournament winnings to Baatar Hero!

Along with all the other generous donations throughout the night we are now ready to purchase our rally cars. Thank you to everybody who came out and showed their support!

See all our photos on Flickr.

Party Success!

brian — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:48:55 +0000

We had such a great time Friday night at our kickoff Holid ay Party and Fundraiser! Friends, new and old, and family all joined us at Roq La Rue to celebrate with wine and music. We presented our plan and everybody donated generously to help us make it to Mongolia. Not only did we raise funds to get started, but we’ve acquired reserve fuel tanks (jerry cans), a tent, sleeping bag and a donation of environmentally friendly soap!

We can’t thank everybody enough for their generous support. These donations, both financial and in kind goods, along with all the enthusiasm and energy in the room touched us personally and provided us with a boost of confidence to continue working hard to make this endeavor a reality.

With the help of The Snow Leopard Trust, as well as items donated by the local Mongolian community, we held a silent auction which proved very popular. Crafts handmade throughout Central Asian republics from Mongolia to Kazakhstan were auctioned off with proceeds benefiting not just us, but also going to The Snow Leopard Trust which is protecting the endangered snow leopard in that region.

We were especially excited to present the Mercy Corps story and talk about them at our fund raising table because a few people from their local office came down after their own holiday party and joined us for the night. Donations for Mercy Corps have continued to pour in through our FirstGiving page after the event!

The Morin Khuur performances by Urtaa and his student Robert were a highlight of the evening. They played both traditional Mongolian music and contemporary pieces that everybody was more familiar with.

This first event was a huge success by any measure. We had so much fun and can’t wait for our next event. With everybody’s help we are well on our way to Mongolia! Check out more photos of the event at Flickr.

See you at our next event!

- Team Baatar Hero

Baatar Hero’s Premier Holiday Party!

brian — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:14:45 +0000

In two weeks we will be celebrating the holidays at local art gallery, Roq La Rue, with our first fundraising event. We hope to entertain and educate our friends and family with more info about the Mongol Rally and Mercy Corps. We also have morin khuur (Mongolian horse hair cello) players lined up to give everybody a taste of what we saw at the Khoomei-Taiko Ensemble performance. It’s shaping up to be a fun evening! I can’t wait.