With the focus on an auction and live music at DaVine in Maple Valley, Pull Together’s first fundraising event was a success.
Originally the plan was to host a battle of the bands with adult groups rocking out and judged by a group of youth musicians but a variety of circumstances led Megan Sheridan, a Maple Valley resident who recently founded Pull Together, to cancel that element and focus on the silent auction at DaVine Nov. 23.
“We had a great night of live music and fundraising,” Sheridan wrote in an email interview. “The community stepped up with amazing auction items that helped raise money for tuition assistance at (Dace’s Rock ‘n’ More) and support youth programs at the Greater Maple Valley Community Center.”
She was particularly pleased by the turnout by members of the Maple Valley City Council, Black Diamond officials and members of the Greater Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce.
Sheridan formed Pull Together in an effort to support social, economic and cultural programs in Maple Valley to bring to bear all the resources in the community in order to focus them on making it a better place to live, work, shop and play.
It made sense to Sheridan to partner with Dace Anderson and Arielle Young, who run Rock ‘n’ More, a nonprofit music school with locations in Maple Valley and Redmond. As Sheridan works to gain nonprofit, tax exempt status for Pull Together, Rock ‘n’ More can support her efforts, while the new organization can raise money to support programs for youth in the community.
Sheridan wrote that she is coordinating with Pull Together’s board of directors to determine the next steps on the heels of the fundraiser.
“We are working to decide how to make the biggest impact with the money raised combined with community help,” she wrote. “We are working on our next fundraisers and project now. We want to make an impact with the youth right here, especially the underprivileged. We want all children to have access to sports, art, music and more, so we will raise money to provide scholarships. This will be our focus for 2014.”
For more information about Pull Together, contact Sheridan at megan@pulltogether.org.
