Eighth Annual Banquet Recap
This Year, Operation HOPE had our biggest and most successful banquet so far!
Click the image above to see the entire photo album shot by Mark Umstot Photography!
The Eighth Annual Operation HOPE Banquet was held on March 29, 2014 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center. We had our biggest turnout ever of over 650 people and welcomed Dr. Ben Carson as our keynote speaker. This year's event was a huge success bringing in over $110,000 of net profit so we can go out and reach the hurting of this world.
The banquet started with Dr. Benny Phillips giving the invocation. We were honored to have such a distinguished member of our community spend the evening with us, and were pleasantly surprised to hear that he had written a few prayers specifically for the event. Our founder, Dr. Thomas also shared a few encouraging words thanking everyone for their support.
For the second year in a row, we held a silent auction including two high powered rifles, sports memorabilia, a commissioned painting by Baron Batch, dinner with TTU Football Coach Kliff Kingsbury, and breakfast with Dr. Carson. In addition to the live auction items, banquet attendees had the opportunity to bid on a number of silent auctions as well. Between the two auctions alone, Operation HOPE was able to raise over $53,000.
As Keynote speaker, Dr. Carson shared with banquet attendees the story of his life from his days as a young boy in Detroit struggling in school to discovering that God had given him the ability to change lives if he would take the time to learn how. Dr. Carson is a fantastic example of what it means to persevere no matter how difficult and we are thankful that he came to share his story with us.
This year, we also welcomed Lauren Swart to share about Ash & Ember, one of our ministry partners dedicated to helping Haitian men and women work their way out of poverty by making handmade jewelry with magazine and craft-paper. Ash & Ember has done much to improve the lives of men and women in Haiti and we are glad to partner with them!
We are truly thankful for everyone who was able to come spend the evening with us and we look forward to next year's event!
Below you will find a list of Sponsors for the Seventh Annual Operation HOPE Banquet
Dr. Howard Beck | CBJ Farms | Steve & Brenda Johnson | My Liberty Homes | Dennis Quattlebaum | Dwain Woody | Tommy & Juliet Youngblood
We would like to say a HUGE thank you to all of our gracious sponsors for helping make Operation HOPE what it is today!