On May 20, 2013, a level EF5 tornado tore through the sleepy town of Moore, Oklahoma, leveling schools, homes, businesses and even the Moore Medical Center was nearly destroyed in only 39 minutes. There were 25 killed and 377 injured by this monster, and hundreds were left with just the clothes that they were wearing. Led by Victoria Lo, R&R Partners’ Los Angeles office held a silent auction to raise money for the people of Moore, in conjunction with the office’s Open House for our new LA office digs on Friday, May 31st. With the expectation of nearly 100 in attendance, this provided a perfect audience for our fundraising effort. Donations flowed in from our LA employees and included such services as cake-baking; Zumba classes; bartending tutorials; a tea tasting party; VIP office parking spaces, etc.
In addition, to expand the funding potential, an online silent auction was also created for R&R employees in other offices, with donations from the Las Vegas office and the firm’s partners, including reserved parking spaces (a hot commodity in the Las Vegas office); surf lessons; a celebrity meet & greet with race car driver Tanner Foust, star of the History Channel’s “Top Gear”; a mint condition Pee Wee Herman collection; a time share at Lake Las Vegas; golf with Partner Snow; crafts from our talented employees; and getting your car washed, with beers served, by the creative department’s Dynamic Trio — Snow, DiGeorge & Lopez.
At the stroke of 9:00 am, bidding took off fast and furiously, and continued until 7:00 pm, with the winners announced at the height of the Open House festivities. At the close of bidding, we had raised over $2,600 for the United Way of Central Oklahoma’s Disaster Relief Fund, specifically for the May Tornado Relief.