We did it!!!!!

Pretty much alternative commencement was the best thing ever!!! We did it! We raised $26,000, got Pete Ashdown, Jack Healy and Ralph Nadar as speakers, and got 1,200 wonderful people out to share in the celebration! (thanks to all of you who came!).
It was such a wonderful feeling of community and positive change. I think we were really able to have it not be an angry, anti vibe, but rather a gathering about really finding alternatives and trying to be proactive about making good things happen. It was intense, and wonderful. At the last minute we realized that we wouldn't have time to feed the speakers before the event, and that no restaurants would stay open late enough for us afterwards. . . so I wound up cooking a meal for the whole group (pictured above!). So all day was baking brownie cake, cooking a host of lovely organic veggies into a minestrone stew, a coconut curry squash soup, lemon garlic salad, etc. My friend Raquel is a fantastic caterer and she provided gorgeous dinnerware and set up a beautiful spread in her gallery (gallery One Ten). I was blushing like a school girl when Nadar came up and told me how much he liked the meal. . .sigh. . . political crush from a far. So it was pretty much one of the best days of my life, and very much the best community, grassroots event I've ever encountered. Bravo to all that did so much! Hooray for alternatives!!!