Changes to Crazy Ca$h as schools partner with CRC
A previous Crazy Ca$h Night. Tickets, tickets, tickets! The Crazy Ca$h Night is all about raffles and holding just the right ticket at the right time!
Crazy Ca$h, Manchester's largest annual fundraising event, has been a beloved institution for more than two decades. Over the past few years it has gone through many changes, adapting to survive.
This year will be the 21st Crazy Ca$h event. With a new partnership between two organizations running it in a new location during a new time of year, you may worry that too much institutional knowledge will have been lost to make the event as successful as in previous years. But, you would be wrong.
For many years, the Manchester Kiwanis Club ran Crazy Ca$h as a fundraiser — not only for Kiwanis, but also for grants Kiwanis gave to other community groups for specific projects. Over the first 19 years of the event, not including the money raised for themselves, Kiwanis donated back more than $300,000 to other Manchester volunteer organizations.
What is Crazy Ca$h? Crazy Ca$h is a reverse raffle, where the last number drawn wins the biggest prize. But while the raffle is the main draw of the night, the event also includes dinner, silent auctions, live auctions, cash, special prize drawings … and alcohol.
Traditionally, it was held at the American Legion Hall on Duncan Street and continued to be held in the same building, known as the Legacy Realty Building, when it was purchased by Borek-Jennings and Legacy LLC in 2012. It has now been owned by Eineder Funeral Homes since spring 2020.
The first hiccup in recent years was when the 2018 event almost didn’t happen. It was nearly canceled in fall 2017 because of renovations planned for the Legacy building that would have made it impossible to hold Kiwanis’ Crazy Cash there. Organizers searched for a local venue large enough to hold it but failed to find one. (At that time, the schools, which have the only other large event locations in Manchester, would not allow an event with alcohol in the buildings.) Learning this, Borek-Jennings graciously delayed the planned renovations to the building until after March, which meant Crazy Cash could happen.
And it did, but because it had become harder and harder for Kiwanis’s aging and shrinking membership to run the event themselves, they partnered with the Manchester Community Schools Foundation (a small non-profit that supports but is separate from Manchester Community Schools) and the Manchester Lions Club to organize the 2018 event.
A few months later that same year — in August 2018 — Kiwanis announced that due to declining volunteers available for the event, they would no longer hold the Crazy Ca$h, and urged other community organizations to consider taking on the task. Sadly, Manchester’s Kiwanis Club voted to dissolve less than a year later in May 2019.
Manchester’s largest organization — Manchester Community Schools — stepped up and took over the event for 2019. They repurposed the event as a fundraiser for students and school groups in an effort to reduce the number of small fund-raisers students have to participate in every year. They held the 2019 event one last year at the Legacy Realty Building, and raised more than $13,000 that year for the schools.
In January 2020, Manchester Community Schools began planning what would have been the 21st Annual Crazy Ca$h night and the second under their organization. It would be moved to the Manchester High School commons in which, due to a change in school administrators, alcohol would be allowed. They also shifted weekends from the first weekend of March to mid-March to better work around existing events on the school calendar.
Like most events in the spring of 2020, Crazy Ca$h was canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis, but the tickets had already been sold. Organizers gave ticket holders a choice: request a refund, or stay in and be part of a drawing that would be held from among those ticket holders who decided to remain “in the game.” A virtual drawing was held, and winners notified.
No event was planned for spring 2021 as many restrictions were in place on gatherings and indoor events. Would it have gone forward without the restrictions? It’s hard to say ... but in mid-March, Manchester was already weeks into its growing second wave of COVID-19 and just a few weeks out from the schools moving to all virtual because of outbreaks and quarantining,
With the vaccine now widely available, new COVID-19 cases in Manchester very low, and restrictions lifting, the schools announced last week that there will be a 21st Annual Crazy Ca$h in 2021. It is scheduled for September 11, 2021 in the Manchester High School Commons and the schools will partner with the Manchester Community Resource Center (CRC) to organize the event.
It is because of the pandemic that the CRC became involved. For the past 25 years, the CRC has held a volunteer recognition/ fundraiser banquet at the St. Joe Chelsea hospital every fall. Because of the pandemic, they couldn’t hold it in 2020 and the hospital dining room will still not be available this fall. Anita Herman, CRC board vice-president stated, “The CRC, in seeking an alternative for this significant source of revenue, approached [Manchester Community Schools superintendent], Dr. Brad [Bezeau], about hosting or co-hosting the Crazy Ca$h event in 2021. He agreed enthusiastically.”
CRC director Laura Seyfried clarified that while this event is supplementing lost income from the Volunteer Recognition Banquet, it will not take the place of the Banquet itself. “We are not able to have the banquet at St. Joe's again this year, but may try an online auction and some other way to recognize volunteers in the community,” she said.
The schools will serve as the fiduciary agent and proceeds will be split between the co-hosts. Superintendent Brad Bezeau will serve as Chairperson and Seyfried will serve as co-chair. And here is where the return of institutional memory comes in: CRC board members Pat Vailliencourt and Anita Herman will serve as coaches. Both Herman and Vailiencourt were very active members of the Manchester Kiwanis and are Crazy Ca$h organizing veterans of many years!
Herman gave ticket details: "Tickets will be printed as soon as the raffle license is secured and are scheduled to go on sale no later than July 1. Once again, each $100 ticket will include dinner for two adults (BYOB) and will enter them in the reverse raffle for the grand prize of $5,000. Each ticket sold prior to August 15 will include a coupon worth $50 to be used the night of the raffle.”
The CRC will use its share of the proceeds to support their ongoing programs and services. These include the CRC’s open choice food pantry, as well as (hopefully) in-person assistance with benefits enrollment and updates, free income tax preparation, and the Wooden Nickels token program. Services include referrals to partner agencies for behavioral health counseling, financial coaching, and additional resources to supplement those available in our area.
Seyfried explained, “The proceeds from Crazy Ca$h will come at a pivotal time of the year for the CRC. As a major source of previous human service grants closes in Washtenaw County, the replacement opportunities are still unknown to nonprofits offering safety net services in the coming year. Crazy Ca$h funds will help cover the gap for our agency to continue offering our programs and services without interruption. We look forward to partnering with the Manchester Community Schools, and will be recruiting volunteers and attendees for the September 2021 event.”
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