With the increase of Coronavirus diagnoses on the rise, the maximum attendance allowed reduced to half capacity, in abundance of caution, and simply doing the wise thing I have decided to switch this year's in-person Annual Banquet to an online Virtual Banquet.
We are looking at the last Sunday night (or possibly the last Monday night) in November as our new date for a Virtual Banquet. It will last about an hour and will piggy-back onto "Giving Tuesday" which will happen a day or two after our Virtual Banquet. GTD's Virtual Banquet will become a great opportunity for a larger size audience to learn more about GTD, hear about our 2021 plans, hear some great testimonials, and watch some highlight videos from 2020... as well as an opportunity to donate to the cause =)
Any current Table Sponsors will be given the option of a full refund or to become a Virtual Banquet Sponsor.
I believe this is the right thing to do for several reasons:
(1) Infection numbers are on the rise and we don't want to be a mini "super spreader".
(2) We have several older Ministry Partners that we want to protect.
(3) My gut-feeling is that current COVID concerns will dramatically decrease attendance even if we forge ahead with an in-person banquet.
(4) We already had to limit the number of people who could attend to 115 people and that number may be decreased if infections continue to rise.
(5) It costs about $5000 to run the banquet and I don't feel like it's a wise financial decision to move forward with the banquet in the current pandemic surge climate.
(6) Most of the donations we receive from our Annual Banquet fundraiser actually comes from people who typically can't attend the banquet. Many live too far away to attend.
(7) Most of the funds we raise each year actually are done online through social media.
(8) A Virtual Banquet is a good option and will allow more people to "attend" than usually make it to our in-person banquet.
(9) I believe most of our supporters would agree with this decision.
(10) I like taking healthy risks, but I don't like to gamble. Moving forward with an in-person banquet feels more like a gamble than a healthy risk.
Nothing else has changed... We are simply switching from an in-person banquet to an online banquet... We are still raising funds... Our goal continues to be 100k raised by the end of January 2021 to launch GTD into our 25th year of ministry!!
Thank you for supporting GTD!! (More info to come!)
If you would like to be a part of what God is doing in GTD by investing in this ministry now is a great time to jump in! Make a one-time donation or sign up to be a monthly partner... it all makes a huge difference in this ministry!!!
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Click on any of these links to support GTD and help launch us into our 25th year of ministry!
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From the bottom of our hearts - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!
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Going The Distance Adventure Ministry
God-awesome adventures since 1996!
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