charity: water

100,000 lives are about to change.
Why? Because we just had our biggest charity: ball ever.

Thanks so much to all our friends and supporters who came out on Monday night to our annual charity: ball. In one night, we raised $2.2 million total. More than half of that was raised in our Live Auction, which will help bring clean water to nearly 100,000 people in Asia and Africa.

Here’s a little recap in case you couldn’t make it:

Our hosts.

Actress Jessica Biel hosted and filmmaker Tyler Perry joined us to emcee the Live Auction.

“Tonight was the perfect mixture of thoughtfulness and levity,” Jessica told media on the red carpet. “I feel extremely honored to be a part of the charity: water family.”

Tyler Perry and charity: water Board member Brook Hazelton kicked off the Live Auction with an ambitious goal: to raise $1.2 million for water projects in three countries. In less than a half hour, guests had funded all projects in Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Tyler then finished the auction by personally sponsoring all the remaining projects in Cambodia.

This brought our Live Auction total, raised in less than an hour, to $1.2 million.

It’s a mainstay at charity: water events — guests slip off their heels and try lugging one or two five-gallon Jerry cans (40 pounds each) across a platform.

The Waterwalk gives guests a taste of what it’s like for the millions of people around the world who spend hours walking for water each day.

This year, every time someone walked, our sponsors donated $100 towards water projects. By the end of the night, the Waterwalk raised more than $100,000 and left a big impression on guests.

Many of you know Rachel’s story — if you don’t, please read about it here >

Rachel’s campaign this year raised $1.2 million, all for clean water projects, while inspiring people around the world. At charity: ball, we honored her legacy with an exhibition about her story. We shared more than 600 of the comments left on her fundraising page by people all over the globe.

charity: ball 2011 in photos.

Want to see more photos? Guest of a Guest has an entire gallery, check it out here >

Thank you.

We want to thank our guests and sponsors for making this night unforgettable — for us, and for the 100,000 people who will get access to clean drinking water around the globe as a result. Thank you for coming, for sharing in our story and for supporting our work.

Update: if you read this blog when it was first posted, you may have noticed that the amount raised at the Live Auction was originally stated as $1.7 million but has now changed to $1.2 million. This change occurred because we originally counted a $500K pledge from EastLake Church (made during the Live Auction). EastLake committed to raise that money through their Drinks4Drinks campaign in June 2012, but because it was not directly donated the night of charity: ball, we’ve since taken it out of our total.

Last night, with the help of more than 2,200 guests, we raised over $2.5 million to support our mission! Thank you for making this year’s charity: ball the most successful in our history.

We’ll have photos and highlights from the night very soon so stay tuned! For now, here’s a glimpse of the room…

After weeks (ok, months!) of work, we’re almost ready… the hour of charity: ball 2011 is drawing near! For now, a few shots of the setup at the 69th Regiment Armory on 25th St. and Lexington:

Our online ticket sales are now closed — but we have a limited number of tickets available at the door! Learn more about charity: ball 2011 here >