4th Annual DC Fundraiser for Bridges’ Nicaraguan Programs Is Huge Success

A Bridges to Community volunteer group from the DC area IT community raised a record breaking amount of money at the Fourth Annual “Raise the Roof” Cocktail Party and Fundraiser held in October. More than 150 tickets were sold to the affair and over $60,000 was raised by the DC group to go toward meeting their goals to fund the building of an addition onto a school in Masaya as well for new homes for Nicaraguan families. Held once again at the Top of the Town Restaurant in Arlington, VA (www.topofthetown.com), the participants ate, drank and enjoyed the spectacular views of the Capitol, while bidding on the silent auction items and the trip raffle.

Over the past six years, IT professionals from both government and industry not only raise the money to build homes for Nicaraguan families but every January they take time off to travel to Nicaragua and roll up their sleeves to physically construct these buildings. The IT leaders groups from DC will be in Masaya in January to help build the Las Conchitas’ school and in Ticuantepe in March of 2012 to construct houses. There are still some openings for volunteers to participate.

Thanks to the hard work of the chairwoman, Leslie Barry, VP, Government Affairs & Business Development, GTSI and her committee, Anne Aakre, Amy Berman, Denise Hill, Steve Krauss, Mike Mader, Susan Stepanski, Ray Sullivan, Sonja Twiford, Liz Vogel, and Oliver Voss, they have increased the amount of money raised every year since they began hosting this event. Sponsors of the “Raise the Roof” fundraiser this year included: GTSI, Bronze Star, EMC2, Evolver, Top of the Town, Netapp, Microtech, Avaya Government Solutions, ByLight, Blue Ridge Information Systems, Karsun Solutions, Cisco, Censeo and Ambit Group. Additionally, an anonymous donor matched dollar for dollar, up to $25,000 of the funds raised at the event.

The “Raise the Roof” organizers are still hoping to raise additional funds to support Bridges to Community’s projects including new homes, schools, health clinics, and water projects in impoverished rural areas of Nicaragua. To contribute visit http://www.bridgestocommunity.org/events/dc