Raffle Results!!

I have some very important announcements to make!

Drum roll, please….

The WINNERS of the Catwalk for Charity raffle ARE:

1. The first place winner was Melina B, and she and a guest will be attending the Catwalk for Charity! Yaaaaaay!

Melina, my advice to you is as follows:

• Plan ahead! Get yourself a designated driver or a taxi.
• Enjoy the open bar juuuust enough to get braver about approaching the Sabres but not so much that you act like a fool in front of them.
• Do NOT be shy about walking right up to Sabres and asking for a picture with them. It’s their only job at the Catwalk! Every single one of them is super nice about it! And get a picture with Rick and Harry while you’re at it!

2. The winner of the second place prize was actually my friend Elise K. Now, it’s hiillllarious that Elise won because, a.) She lives in New Hampshire and b.) She’s a Bruins fan, and c.) The only prize she cared about at ALL was the one where I call her from the stage while we play Sabres Dance, and d.) The only reason she and her boyfriend (the incomparable, MK) even bought raffle tickets was because they pitied me after the shootout loss to the Bruins on the 23rd. (I’m not kidding. Immediately after that game was over they both bought 5 raffle tickets, which was both incredibly sweet and totally amusing.)

So, Elise graciously donated her 2nd place prize back to the pool of potential winners, and (drumroll, please…)

MARY S is the winner of the Sabres tickets! WOOOOOO!

3. Elise is a professional classical musician and has played in many orchestras herself, so while she WILL be receiving a call from the stage from me, I decided to also draw a 4th place winner as well. So, SHANNON V, will be getting a personal performance of Sabres Dance via phone!

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I would like to thank, from the bottom of my heart, everyone who bought a raffle ticket for this contest. The Steadfast Foundation supports a truly wonderful cause, and I’m proud of the money that we raised ($425! Not too shabby)! So, thank you, readers. I wish I could send you all to the Catwalk, but this year we’re going to have to live vicariously though Melina. Do us proud, Melina.

Win Two Tickets to the Catwalk for Charity (Or, Sabres Tickets)!

I have a very exciting announcement to make:

Thanks to the good people at The Catwalk For Charity, I have TWO tickets to the “Catwalk for Charity: Wrangling for a Cause” on December 4th to give awaaaaaaay!

THAT’S RIGHT! An open bar! Sabres! In cowboy boots! Wandering around holding drinks! Just waiting for you to ask to take a picture with them! RICK JEANNERET IN A DOLLY PARTON OUTFIT (I have it on very good authority that this is actually happening)! Open bar! Many awesome auction items for you to bid on! I’m not kidding about the awesome auction items! Hilllllllarious and WONDERFUL people watching! Delicious snacks aplenty! Have I mentioned the open bar?! Crunchy is your host! There will probably be a puppy in attendance (there usually is)! FUNNEST! NIGHT! EVER!

Okay, allow me to explain.

I’m not exactly giving the tickets away, but, if you’re lucky (and honey, you look VERY lucky to me), you can win them for the low, low price of FIVE (5) AMERICAN DOLLARS!

We’re about to get our raffle on, yo.

This raffle will actually have TWO fabulous prizes:

PRIZE ONE: Two tickets to the Catwalk for Charity on December 4th (donated by the The Catwalk For Charity)

PRIZE TWO: Two tickets to the Sabres/Ottawa game on Tues, December 13th. Section 114, row 8. They’re fun seats. (donated by me)

The first place winner will get to choose between these two prizes, and the second place winner will get the other prize.

These prizes will be raffled off, with all the proceeds going to Ryan Miller’s Steadfast Foundation, an organization dedicated to serving patients and families in WNY effected by cancer. The Steadfast Foundation sponsors programs offered by Carly’s Club and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. It’s a legitimately good cause, and one that I feel very proud to support.

Here’s how it’s going to work:

In order to “buy” a raffle ticket, you make a donation directly to the Steadfast Foundation. I will not be personally handling any of the money. After you donate directly to Steadfast, you’ll take a screenshot of the confirmation email and email THAT to me. (More on that later.)

The raffle tickets are only $5 each. BUT for every 4 tickets you buy, you get one free. So, a $20 donation gets you 5 raffle tickets.

All money donated to the Steadfast Foundation is 100% tax deductible.

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Here’s how you buy the raffle tickets:

1. Follow this link to donate directly to the Steadfast Foundation.

2. Choose your donation amount. The donation can be for any amount, but the more you donate, the more raffle tickets you get.  Remember, a raffle ticket costs $5, but for every $20 you donate, you get one extra ticket for free.

3. Complete your order at Steadfast Foundation.

4. THEN, and this is IMPORTANT, after you make your donation, you will get a confirmation email (hilariously, this email comes from “Dean,” aka, Papa Crunchy). You need take a screenshot of your confirmation email. If you don’t know how to take a screenshot, here are some directions.

FYI, the confirmation email will have two bits of personal information about you. It will have the last four digits of your credit card number, and it will have your home address. Feel free to black out both bits of information if you’d like, but seriously, you guys can trust me with this info. I’m the only one who will process these emails, and I’m a classical musician from Minnesota (very trustworthy). What I DO need: the screenshot must include the “sender” email address (dean [at] steadfastfoundation [dot] com), your name, the invoice ID#, the date of your order, and the payment amount. Your screenshot must match up with Steadfast records, obvy.

5. Email this screenshot to willfulcaboose@gmail.com Do NOT simply forward the email to me. It must be a screenshot.

6. You’re done! Sit back and wait until the winner is announced on MONDAY, Nov 28th. I’m SURE you’ll win!

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Various Rules and Reg-you-lay-shuns:

1. I will stop selling raffle tickets at 12:00pm on Sunday, November 27th. All the eligible screenshots must be in my inbox by then. The raffle winners will be announced on Monday, November 28th.

2. You must be 21 years or older to attend the Catwalk. They will I.D. you at the door, and if you’re not 21 you are back out on the street. I’m sorry, Sabres fans who are younger than 21. Thems the rules. Someday soon you’ll be old enough to go.

3. If you go to the Catwalk you must email me the next day and tell me everything that happened. I can’t go to the Catwalk this year because I’m working, so, I’ll need to live vicariously through you.

4. If you go to the game, you must drink a big beer for me. (Just kidding. You don’t HAVE to do that. [But you can if you want.])

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Now, let me attempt to really SELL you on the Catwalk for Charity.

Last year I had the opportunity to go to the Catwalk as my dear friend Glenn’s plus one. I’ll admit, before I attended the Catwalk, I was a tiny bit wary of the event. I’m sort of scared of real-life Sabres, and I don’t like clubs, so I was unsure about the whole thing. But, Glenn had been to the Catwalk before, and he assured me that was genuinely fun, so I decided to go.

Let me tell you, and I mean this VERY sincerely: THE CATWALK FOR CHARITY IS REALLY FUN. Like, really fun. I talk a lot of bullhonky on this blog, but I promise you, I would NOT lie about something as important as which events are fun and which events are lame. The Catwalk is FUN. F-U-N. Also, HILARIOUS. H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S. This isn’t like the time you saw Tyler Myers at Wegman’s and then tried to pretend you weren’t staring at him. That was fun too, but this is waaaaaay better. This is like that only this time not only are you allowed to go talk to him, you’re ENCOURAGED to talk to him. AND, if you’re like me and it turns out you don’t really have much to say to Tyler Myers other than, “Hey, big fella! Can I get a picture with you?” that is ALSO perfectly acceptable.

Here is something I wrote the day after I went to the Catwalk last year:

I can sum up the Catwalk for Charity thusly:  You go there. You marvel at all the people dressed to the nines in funny 80s outfits.  You say hello to Paul Gaustad like it’s a perfectly normal thing to do [acting!].  You have a drink. You happily ask Cody McCormick for a photo but then slink away when you see Derek Roy coming. You think to yourself, “That guy over there looks a lot like the guy from ‘thirtysomething’ but why would the ‘thirtysomething’ guy be here?  Surely that’s not him.” You gawk at various Sabres, some of whom you don’t even recognize because they’re wearing 80’s disguises [private to Steve Montador: I am KICKING MYSELF for not realizing you were the guy in the CHIPS-style cop uniform, because I’m preeeetty sure you and I should be BFFs]. You have another drink. You wander around looking at silent auction items, making sure that people are bidding on Glenn’s fabulous BPO dinner/concert/backstage tour extravaganza package (they are).  You have another drink.  You realize that that IS the guy from ‘thirtysomething’ but you still have no IDEA what he would be doing at this party.  You giggle because someone keeps sternly saying into the PA system, “If you are a Buffalo Sabre, please report to the backstage area,” and it amuses you that apparently the Sabres refuse to be wrangled.

You watch some of the live auction and marvel at the adorableness of the auctioneer (who would have EVER guessed that they make auctioneers young and adorable these days?  Not you). You encounter Tyler Myers who seems perfectly happy to gently careen throughout the room hugging strangers and enthusiastically posing for ridiculous photographs while Tyler Ennis (who, for reasons you do NOT understand, is wearing an identical outfit to Myers, only with a pillow stuffed underneath his shirt to make it look like he has a pot belly) sort of follows along behind him, tugging at his jacket and saying, “I think we’re supposed to be backstage, man.”   You get your picture taken with Harry Neale and Rick Jeanneret, and that makes you very happy.You watch the catwalk and you figure out that the reason the Tylers are dressed alike is because they’re supposed to be Schwarzenegger and Devito from “Twins.”  You realize your feet are starting to hurt from these shoes.  You go over and look at the Vezina trophy. While you’re looking at the trophy, Miller takes a picture with his phone of the place where his name is engraved, and you overhear him tell his mom, “This is the first time I’ve seen my name on it.”  You think that’s pretty cute.  Then, you thank Glenn a million times for taking you, for being such a great date, and for being the totally responsible designated driver.

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Please support The Steadfast Foundation by buying some raffle tickets. (Raffle tickets are $5 each, or 5 for $20!) This is a great cause. AND, if for some bonkers reason you don’t want to go to the Catwalk for Charity, you can go to the Sabres game and sit in the Official Willful Caboose Seats instead! AND, if for some MEGA BONKERS reason you don’t want to to the Catwalk OR the game, this is still a GREAT cause, and you can always give your winnings to someone you love.

A huge thank you to Therese Forton and Kristin Etu (PR ladies extraordinaire), for greenlighting this raffle and for being all-around awesome. During the process of setting up this raffle and writing this post, I had approximately 45,000 questions. Unfortunately, I thought of the questions one at a time, spread out over three days. So, Kristin has patiently, and with infinite good humor, responded to 45,000 emails from me.  And of course, a HUGE thanks to the Catwalk for Charity for donating these tickets for this raffle. I want to raise them lots of money, so everyone go donate!

Finally, I want to encourage everyone to consider actually purchasing a ticket to attend this event. If you really want to go to the Catwalk for Charity (and you should) you don’t want to take your chances on a raffle. The best way to ensure you get a ticket is by buying one here.

Let’s Go Buff-a-lo!