Life after a successful campaign.....

While the concert was certainly a PERFECT ending to a wildly successful campaign, I wasn't able to enjoy our amazing achievement for long! 

By 6AM the next morning, Chris and I were headed out of town for a vacation we scheduled months ago!  And we're still old fashioned about vacations -- we actually unplug.  No computers come with us, and neither of us have smart phones.  So we were out of touch for some much-needed R&R!

I came back to work this morning to a flood of emails, voicemails, and messages to congratulate us on our success.

Since the Repository sent a photographer to the concert, we had instant media coverage that we had reached our goal.  Special thanks to Stephanie Span for handling the media calls on Friday when Joyce, Chris, and I were all out of town!

When we got back, we were beyond excited to see the editorial in the Repository about the success of the tiara fundraising effort.  Click here to read it!

The tiara is not here yet.  We are making arrangements now, and we don't have a timeline in place yet.  As soon as we know when it will be on display to the public, we will be announcing it EVERYWHERE.  We are anxious to share it with our visitors as soon as we can.  There will be no delays in getting this on exhibit in the McKinley Gallery.

Again, many thanks to everyone who contributed.  There were more than 300 people who sent donations in the mail, over the phone, or online via PayPal.  The entire list of donors will be displayed in the McKinley Gallery.

This was very much a grassroots campaign, with mostly small donors giving what they could to a cause they believed in.  We've been smiling at the similarities between this campaign and how the Monument was funded more than a century ago.  We have a vast support network of thousands of ordinary people, who believe in us and what we're doing.  Not every museum has that.  And we are eternally grateful.

Stay tuned for the big annoucement of WHEN you can come see Ida's tiara for yourself!