Wow!

I can't believe that we more-or-less wrapped up this gigantic FUNdraising effort up on Saturday evening but we did. My wife Suzanne and I plus several of our staff who volunteered their time hosted over 100 people for the UBR2 Gala held in the showroom at Bob's BMW. I must share that I think our staff did a great job of rearranging the place, rolling out over 40 motorcycles plus many other changes to the retail space to make room for our guests to have fun and participate in the dinner and live auction. Our three favorite restaurants: Iron Bridge Wine Company, Aida Bistro and Cafe de Paris all did an incredible job of providing plenty of varied and superb food for our guests and I believe that our staff and a few guests who volunteered their time provided excellent bar service all night serving up several kinds of delicious wines and beers. Steve Dance, our friend and Auctioneer from Dance Auctions in Baltimore not only helped us raise a lot of money, but actually entertained the crowd of enthusiastic and active bidders during the two live auction sessions actually making people laugh as they raised their bids against each other on the great items we had to offer thanks to many generous suppliers and vendors including BMW Motorrad, Edelweiss Bike Travel, Olympia Motorsports, Tasty Shirt Company, Scorpion, REV'IT, PIAA, Tucker-Rocky, Hyatt & Company, Parts Unlimited, Metzeler, Harris Battery, First Gear, Bridgestone, Victoria Gastro Pub, FiberClean, Dennis Simon, Ranazul Tapas Bar and the Service Department at Bob's BMW.

The day started off on a high note as a brand new customer stopped by the dealership late in the morning with a check to cover the BUY-IT-NOW price tag on the 2001 R1150GS donated by Mike Clark that was listed in the online silent auction which is still taking place. That silent auction will officially end at Midnight (12:00 AM) Pacific Coast Time on Wednesday, November 25, 2009; further details will be posted on that section of our website. As the evening began to unfold I could hear conversations about what items people were interested in as everything had been nicely displayed for their inspection. The bidding was fairly robust all night long with most items selling for close to their retail values. While a few items did sell for less, many items sold for more and as a result I dug deeper into my personal stash of posters to duplicate several very popular items because of the good intentions and genuine generosity the bidders shared that night. While we knew going in that the beautiful 1969 R69S sidecar rig, our single largest item might be a long shot and might have to be sold over the next few months with additional effort on the part of myself and my sales team the evening produced a bidder, checkbook in hand that went above the reserve. Joel Gladding won that incredible machine while his wife stood beside him with a very big smile because she'll be the passenger. This was generously donated to us by long time customer and friend Steve Glock and pushed us over our previously elusive goal of $100,000 for the entire years FUNdraising efforts all wrapped up in the UBR2.

We will announce our final numbers on the website once the silent auction is completed; even that one has seen quite a bit of additional activity since Saturday evening with 16 new bids arriving including several more that took advantage of the BUY-IT-NOW options. I have also been inspired to dig out a few more pieces of interesting paper (wall art and literature) to raise a few more dollars with so be sure to check it out over the next few days if you have not done so already. In closing and before you get to read the list of the 7 exceptionally lucky people that won prizes in the UBR2 and see what the items in the live auction sold for I just want to share what I was told by several of one guest during the evening that I believe summed up everyone's feelings: "It should always be this much fun to have someone reach into your wallet for a good cause; thanks for creating this UBR2 event and hosting the Gala Bob".

Finally I'd like to extend a giant THANK YOU on behalf of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, the Ride for Kids Program (local friends and customers please mark 09-26-10 on your calendars) and all the kids and their parents who benefit by what we have accomplished together. I extend my personal and enormous gratitude for allowing all of us here at Bob's BMW to get credit for taking your money and turning it over to what I believe is a truly worthy cause where we have made a real difference in the lives of so many.

Sincerely,

Bob@Bob's