Chocolate Tweetup for Refuge House Recap

What a great fun event we had yesterday for Refuge House! LeRoc Bistro Cafe was a great location with its funky decor and delicious food (I had the pressed Tuscan sandwich - yum - and large enough that I could save half for later). They are also very lucky to have a creative pastry chef who prepared this platter of chocolate goodies for us:

We had such an awesome group for the event - we even overflowed the section that the restaurant had set aside for us! We added extra chairs and had space for all nineteen of us.

Much of the credit for the success of the day goes to Danielle (on the left, below). Not only was having a tweetup for Refuge House her idea, but she also helped organize, and recruited lots of friends and co-workers to attend! It was great to meet some of the people she works with at the Florida Chamber.

Thanks to the generosity of author Elin Waldal, we had a signed copy of her book Tornado Warning: A Memoir of Teen Dating Violence and Its Effect on a Woman's Life as a door prize. (Danielle and I didn't take part in the drawing; I held the bag of entries while Danielle picked the winning ticket... and here she is: Jessica was our lucky winner. 

Altogether we raised $125 in cash donations for Refuge House and collected 4 towel sets, a twin sheet set, 2 pillows, 2 bean bags chairs and 2 bins full of gently-used bed linens. Amazing! Here is my attempt to fit it all in one photo:

I want to thank everyone who came out, supported Refuge House, and helped us have such fun! A special thanks to Nicole for bringing her favorite chocolates (Dove, milk and dark) to share and thanks to her and and to Tara for helping take photos. My attempt to embed Nicole's photo aren't working but you can view it at http://plixi.com/p/94553863. Though they weren't with us in person, Alicia and Jennifer helped behind the scenes and were with us in spirit. And Paula is the mother of tweeting up for a cause in Tallahassee - thank you for your support and for the great chocolate twitter icon for the event!

Related posts: http://twtvite.com/chocotally, Chocolate Tweetup preview post and my review of Tornado Warning.

Tweetup friends to follow on Twitter:
@AleciaDaNay
@biggreenpen
@bmds99
@CWRiley01
@Danielle_Gulasa
@_Living_Light_
@lyonsdigital
@MeaganDougherty
@penguintrax
@saraannhart

@RefugeHouse
@LeRocBistroHD