Promise Love Foundation Fun-Raising Carnival was held on Sunday, September 28, 2014, 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Today the circus came to town and made a special one day stop at NOVA 535 Unique Event Space. It delivered a trainload of delightful carnival fun that was enjoyed by everyone, from 3 months old to grandma and grandpa. Why? Well the Promise Love Foundation, a Tampa Bay charity, was raising money to help further its special cause. Promise Love Foundation was born to assist people financially and with their expert guidance who want to adopt domestically. Today we met several thrilled new parents and their smiling newly adopted kids. Today was a good day, including Fist Bumping Ronald McDonald the Clown.
NOVA’s beautiful brick and the bamboo courtyard were full of games, and prizes, snow-cones (just don’t read the ingredients of the cone juice) face painting and millions of kids scurrying about on their lovely sugar highs. Heisenberg Level Highs today. Perfect for the guy, who ran an event late last night and then hung out with friends, including one of his favorite who was visiting from the Highlands, my old pal Whiskey Galore.
Round 4:00 am-ish we finally closed lids and terrifyingly instantaneously it was bright and sunny and there were kids squealing in delight everywhere… anyhoo….this is where I thought I was hallucinating, but I wasn’t, cause I capture it on film. Well on ones and zeros, but who really cares these days. Maybe a few diehard ‘filmies’ but I digress. I caught the moment that gave me my title for today’s blog, “Fist Bumping Ronald McDonald the Clown”. It happened. Yup. Just be patient and wait for it…. wait…
See, I wasn’t on anything but a delicious gluten-free egg, bacon, cheese and spinach sandwich from Banyan Cafe next door (YUMMY!!) plus lots and lots of H20.
Inside NOVA 535’s main gallery, there was Ryan and Patrick behind our bar, with a few of Promise Love’s many fabulous volunteers, spearheaded by Carrie Wildes, an amazing local photographer, pal Daniel Blackburn and Holly Nazario, and friends and husbands and so many people that I’ve already forgotten many of their names.
Their team were cooking and serving hot and yummy and not gluten-free Papa Murphy’s pizza (today was an official cheat day), plus there was incredibly delicious Gelato cart from Cafe Ala Carte from a gorgeous candy display from CHIC Sweets. The lovely ladies Megan and Holly from Collective Creations were colorizing and beautifying faces of all sizes, mostly small, throughout the entire event. Really cool work!
Music was provided by the local powerhouse DJ service Grant Hemond, with DJ Mike really getting the crowd into it today. I did catch him on the dance floor leading about 30 people in a line dance of some sort. The fun fun photo-booth was provided by my pals Mark and Shelli Olsen of Get The Picture Photo Booths. Love them!
Ronald himself was seemingly everywhere, and we did share a few laughs. The other clown I didn’t get to know, just a quick #ClownSelfie (not a new term, as I found out with a quick Googling) and then he was gone. I wonder if we’ll ever see each other again? Hmmm.
Again the reason we were all here today was to raise money and awareness for the www.promiselovefoundation.org, which is a wonderful group of loving people who are helping others navigate smoothly the domestic adoption channels. Bravo to all of them and their amazing volunteers!!
Most of these photos were taken on my Canon 6D, a few on my Samsung Note 2, so please excuse any graininess and such. I’m a guy with a good camera and am learning how to use it. A little bit at a time.
Just another wonderful afternoon here at NOVA 535 Unique Event Space. People always ask “Is NOVA open to the public?” and I explain that 98% of the time NOVA is closed for private events, Weddings, Receptions, Mitzvahs, Film Shoots, Corporate Parties, Fundraisers, Birthdays and such. If you or a friend is looking to rent NOVA 535 for an event, please click here. Thank you and good luck to us all!
What about that 2% you may ask? Well, we do open up occasionally for PUBLIC Events…some truly unique and amazing ones, like NOVAWEEN, NOVA NOEL, Sunscreen Film Festival and more.