Mistletoe Madness on December 8 at Triad was amazing! Special thanks to the community support and sponsors to help make this possible. Gateway CEO students envisioned the day, coordinated every part of it and launched last Sunday at 10 am! This year's event exceeded their goals and this class generated the most revenue ever since this program launched six years ago. It was a lot of diligence, commitment, creativity and honestly - fun! The proceeds for this class business will go towards seed money for their individual businesses in the second semester. They will also give back as a Class of 2025 as an Investor to promote sustainability of the program and also enjoy a well earned field trip day at the end of the year. As a facilitator, it's amazing to watch the leaders rise up. I'm fortunate to oversee and be guard rails - and let all of these entrepreneurs truly lead. Here are some highlights:
- Marketing Team - Responsible for every post and flier created to promote this program on multiple platforms. They set the tone for the way this event was presented to the public.
- Santa's Workshop Team - Any event during December should also include holiday fun. Santa's Workshop included fun games, face painting, yard games and of course breakfast with Santa! They also collected for the toy and winter clothing drive. These proceeds went to several local families, ministries and 501c3 organizations.
- Sponsorship Team - These students worked to make sure we could launch all the initial purchases for this event by reaching out to local businesses for sponsorships. The students quickly learned the value of feet to the street and reaching out for in-person appointments and drop bys. We are so thankful for the local community that sponsored this event! Both through corporate sponsorships and also silent auction baskets.
- Tournament Team - This team coordinated all of the sign ups, management of reaching out to basketball organizations, developing the age groups and brackets along with concessions. The tourney hosted 45 teams from ages 3rd grade to adult! It was a fantastic day of competition.

Thank you to the board for their support, to Triad High School for hosting, to @Al Adomite - BBQ Connoisseur, D&M Farms, The Wooden Tie Cafe, Uptown Scoops, The Sweet Shop and Excel Bottling Company for making the concessions a huge hit as well!