{"id":400,"date":"2020-12-12T20:35:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T00:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ryanscircleofgiving.com\/blog\/?p=400"},"modified":"2020-12-14T10:47:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T14:47:00","slug":"comedy-night-2020-a-much-needed-covid-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ryanscircleofgiving.com\/blog\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"Comedy Night 2020…A Much-Needed COVID Break"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Phyllis & Barry Gordon<\/h4>\n
On Saturday evening, October 10th, over 130 wonderful sponsors, donors and guests came together for an evening of Laughter and Love.<\/h2>\n
While joining together on Zoom was in no way what we had envisioned when we began our planning for the April, 2020 RCG Comedy Night, our torpedoed plans in March due to COVID forced us to regroup. We canceled our venue, Traditions of Wallingford (folks there were so gracious), put away the centerpieces we were in the process of building, stopped baking the cookies we’d planned for a little extra dessert, and rescheduled our comedian for October – hoping, at least, we could still go live.<\/h2>\n
And wonderfully, ALL of our sponsors, when given an ‘out’ in March, stayed with us, showing us, once again, how incredibly fortunate we are and how generous and loving THEY are.<\/h2>\n
As the early days of summer wore on, we knew in our hearts that a live event in October would never materialize. Disappointed but not deterred, we figured out what we needed to do to carry off a Zoom event and, with the help of some dear friends and our flexible comedian, Johnny Lampert…the show did go on!<\/h2>\n
Beginning at 7:30 p.m. sharp, a lovingly-made video (thank you, Audrey Locorotondo) thanking our Sponsors and donors and featuring the philanthropic life of Ryan, put to the music of Queen’s “We Are the Champions”, played (over and over!) while our guests logged in.<\/h2>\n
We have to say…it was really wonderful and heartwarming to see our family and friends (and some of their family and friends) together, under one ZOOM!<\/h2>\n
At 8:00 the ‘curtain’ rose, and we gave a (fairly) brief and grateful-filled speech, while also letting everyone know why a Comedy Night was such a fitting tribute to Ryan.<\/h2>\n
By 8:10 or so, we introduced our comedian…and Johnny began a very funny, sometimes racy routine that had everyone laughing. It seemed that in some ways, Zoom offered an intimacy that a live show might not have. Perhaps it was because people were in their homes – and relaxed – and Johnny proved quite astute at noticing some interesting tidbits about our guests.<\/h2>\n
Johnny had planned on a 45 minute show…and seemed to enjoy us enough to play for an hour – and then stuck around for a bit more while we carried on our Tea-Cup raffle!\u00a0 We are grateful for his talents, his time and his generosity.<\/h2>\n
Our event ended, as usual, with the drawing of our (40+!) raffle prizes, the vast majority of which, thankfully, were procured by Wynn & Elise Schoolnik prior to the state shuttering.\u00a0 For the first time ever, there was no cost for the raffle event – this was one way we\u00a0could thank all of our pre-COVID guests for hanging in with us, and our newer guests for joining us.<\/h2>\n
While 2020 has been an incredible challenge for all, the high point for us was the RCG Comedy Night.<\/h2>\n
And, most importantly, we are thrilled to be able to provide the charities RCG supports over $24,300!\u00a0 Thank you, one and all, who participated.\u00a0 We are sure that Ryan was laughing with us, and applauding all of our participants for helping to keep his legacy alive.<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
From the bottom of our hearts, we give a special thanks to…<\/strong><\/h2>\n
OUR WONDERFUL VOLUNTEERS…<\/strong><\/h1>\n
Audrey Locorotondo<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Elise & Wynn Schoolnik\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Lisa Rappoport <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Matthew Rappoport <\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Sandy Balayan<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
Sindy Malin<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
THOSE WHO SO GENEROUSLY PROVIDED THEIR SERVICES AND\/OR EXPERTISE…<\/strong><\/h1>\n