On Saturday, October 19th we got a chance to celebrate our community, raise some money and awareness for KCNQ2 Cure. We hosted an event at the Silver Branch Brewing Company in Silver Spring, Maryland. Silver Branch hosts a monthly charity event and we managed to get the slot for October. From 1:00 to 4:00 we had a space in the back, a keg of beer and a bunch of happy guests.

The brewery also generously donated the beer and offered us all sales in the form of a donation. They also gave us one dollar for every pint poured at the bar during that time. We knew that would raise some money from drinks but we also set up a raffle. We were able to get 6 local businesses to donate prizes. Prizes included yoga at a local studio, flowers, a gift certificate from a florist and gift certificates from several restaurants.

We’d been planning the event for weeks and found the perfect location; great beer and accessible from public transportation. When 1:00 arrived it was just the 4 of us (Megan, Lucy, Tony and me) we were pretty nervous. But quickly things filled up with friends, family, co-workers, former co-workers, therapists, and others. All told we had over 60 people and between the raffle and donations from the brewery, we raised over $1500. One big surprise was the fact that raffle was the biggest fundraising success. I wasn’t sure what to expect but the raffle was the source of nearly two-thirds of the money we raised.

Raising money was great and seeing our community out in force was equally terrific. The highlight was getting to meet another KCNQ2 family and child. This was the first time that we met Joel and his parents, Doug and Esme. Additionally, many of their friends and family came out and many drove over an hour to join us. We’d been in contact via Facebook but meeting in person was fantastic. It’s also a great reminder of how much we are looking forward to seeing many people at the KCNQ2 Cure conference in Philadelphia this May. Keep an eye out for all of the updates on that event coming out soon.