Pie in face fundraiser for cancer research
Family Video has for several years been cooperating with the Lymphoma Prevention Fund and the University of Chicago Medical Center in helping lead the fight in lymphoma prevention. Every year, all the stores in the chain hold raffles to raise money for this cause.
The proceeds are split 50-50 with one half going to the Lymphoma Prevention Fund and the other half going to supporting research and an organ tissue bank at the University of Chicago Medical Center, according to Harrisburg Family Video Manager Ed Quinn.
"Several years ago our company funded the establishment of an organ tissue bank at the Chicago University to assist in research on lymphoma," Quinn said. "And our company does yearly fundraisers to help fund research and prevention."
Quinn said that many local business donated items to the local store for the yearly raffle and the store also put together gift packages of movies, games and snacks to be raffled off.
"I want to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to all the local businesses that have been so generous in helping us," Quinn said.
This year, Quinn got an idea to add a little something extra to the fundraising drive.
"I thought, why not have a little fun with this," Quinn stated.
With the enthusiastic support of his staff, Quinn prepared a poster board with all the employees names on it. Then, customers were asked to donate a $1 and have it put by the name of the employee they wanted to see get a pie in the face.
"This was a real success," Quinn said. "The staff got really excited about it and we had people coming in to check on which worker was the leading candidate for the pie in the face. We added a raffle to see who would get to throw the pie and that really took off."
And so on Friday night, workers, friends, customers and pie throwers gathered at the Harrisburg Family Video to see Quinn and Tanner Smith, the "Winner" of the pie in the face contest get their just desserts.
Quinn and Smith took their places in chairs and the winner of the pie throwing raffle Autumn Travelstead and a young fried of Quinn's, Carleigh Mills, stood ready with fluffy plates of whipped cream in hand. At the signal, Travelstead and Mills gleefully slapped the gooey mess into the waiting eager faces of Quinn and Smith. Whipped cream splattered and the audience cheered and laughed as the pies landed squarely in the two men's faces.
Afterwards, wiping whipped cream from his face Smith said to the Daily Register, "It's been really cool. Everybody got into it and we raised a good amount for lymphoma research and prevention."
Quinn stated that Family Video as a company raised $1,292,293 and the Harrisburg store raised $2,153.
"This was great," Quinn said afterwards, streaks of whipped cream still dripping off his face. "I've just been at this store for five months and I'm already thinking about how we can have more fun raising money for this cause next year."