"Reality Stars Give Back" Toys for Tots Fundraiser
WHERE VFW Hall, Portsmouth, NH
WHEN December 4, 2015
Last Friday my friend Alex and I, who have both loved summertime guilty pleasure "Big Brother" for a long time, went to the 8th annual Reality Stars Give Back fundraiser for Toys for Tots in Portsmouth, NH. Despite the fact that this has been going on for eight years, this was the first year I'd ever gone. I think the appearances of our BB17 favorites Johnny Mac and Jason are what caught my eye. Anyway, we decided to go and I'm really glad we did!
The event was held at a VFW Hall in Portsmouth. For a $40 donation you got admittance to the event, a t-shirt to commemorate it, and a multi-course dinner cooked by Cowboy from BB5. Alex and I also brought a couple of board games to donate, since it was a Toys for Tots fundraiser. When we walked in, the first thing we saw was Johnny Mac standing at the bar, so the night was already a success.
We grabbed a table and met a nice dude named Ryan who had also never been to the event, but had been to other "Big Brother" and "Survivor" meet-ups. He ended up introducing us to Johnny Mac, who was super nice and funny and posed for photos with us.
Meanwhile, Cowboy and his fiancé had cooked up a delicious feast, including salad, deviled eggs, chicken'n'dumplins, shrimp and mussels, spinach ravioli, meatloaf, etc. - followed by brownies, coffee cake, and eclairs for dessert. After dinner jams were provided by Johnny Mac, JennCity (BB14), and Louie Stravato ("The Amazing Race"), with Vanilla Ice karaoke by Michelle Costa (BB10), who served as the night's hostess and emcee. Jason also rapped a hot Nicki Minaj verse, which was fantastic to witness.
At this point we really got to mingle with all the houseguests/reality stars and chat, take photos, get our shirts signed, etc. They were all so sweet. Jason is the most adorable human of all time. Fact. Alex and I tried to get him to move to Maine and be best friends with us, but he said, "there's nothin' in Maine but moose and you!" And, I mean, he's not wrong. JennCity and Cowboy were both very sweet. Michelle was awesome; so funny and nice. At the end of the night she told us to tweet her that we'd make it safely back to Maine. Aww.
Overall, the event raised almost $1500 for Toys for Tots just that night; there were also two other events that weekend, plus the money the reality stars had raised beforehand. All in all, I think they were able to spend $7000 on toys on Sunday - and Jason livestreamed his Barbie-riffic shopping trip on YouNow, which was really fun to watch. I definitely want to attend the event next year, but stay for the whole weekend!
