05/06/2025
Amazing work being done by some great people in Charlotte. Congratulations to all involved! Thank you Mental Health America of Central Carolinas - MHA for allowing us to partner with you. We're very fortunate to be contributers to the cause.
At two events in the last three nights, I’ve helped raise over half-a-million dollars in less than half-an-hour.
If you'd told me a year ago I'd be able to write that sentence, I'd have laughed in your face.
But, here we are. Bet On Yourself.
I want to take a minute to say how proud I am of our community, as this money will make a difference for neighbors. Real people. This collage has one photo from each event: Feed NC in Mooresville, which helps with food insecurities, and Mental Health America Central Carolina’s chapter, aiding our mental health crisis.
Let’s start with FeedNC. Its fundraiser centered around big tables, family-style meals, and making conversation. Afterwards, I was given 20-minutes to lead a paddle raise. We had a six-figure goal. Just a paddle raise. No auctioning trips, art, golf clubs, stuff. The electric feel started in the first second, and wound itself through every table and human soul present. Energy was alive. One table got up and even started dancing midway through the paddle raise. We hit goal (I mentally kept tabs, adding while calling out numbers), then broke $200k, then broke $300k. By the end of 20-minutes, we’d raised $346,000 to help families find good meals and fresh food in a dignified and non-judgmental way.
If you were in that room, I hope you woke up patting yourself on the back. FeedNC had a phenomenal night, because of you.
💫
Meantime, MHA hosted its first gala on the first night of May, Mental Health Awareness Month. The glitzy, green affair was held in The Casey, the same venue we’d hosted our Bet On Yourself Summit 2.0 two days before. To be back in that space in formal black-tie was psychologically interesting for me personally… and also inspiring. The space was transformed. A sell-out crowd to hear speakers and raise money to fund counseling for those in need. We beat our goal using green flashlights instead of paddles, a creative way to illuminate the problem and “light the path” towards solutions.
In between these two nights I was honored to keynote a statewide Rotary leadership conference in Statesville. While on stage, I heard myself say, “If you’d told me a year ago I’d be an auctioneer, I wouldn’t have believed you.” I mean that. I never had this dream. Now I want to keep going and going and learn more and more about various non-profits nationwide.
Dreams can change. We’re all allowed to evolve.
Bet On Yourself.
And, bet on your community.
-Molly
