2020 Virtual Sunset in the City Raises Over $336k for Anchor Center

Anchor Center for Blind Children’s largest annual fundraiser, Sunset in the City (Country), was held virtually on September 19th, 2020. More than 665 supporters and friends of Anchor Center registered for this unique, live-streamed event. 52 of the registrants were from out of state and were able to join us for this virtual event!

What started over 24 years ago as a small picnic, known as “Day in the Country”, has evolved into a gala with a silent auction, live auction, dinner, special guest speaker, video about Anchor Center, live entertainment, and dancing. This year, Sunset in the City went virtual and still featured everything but the dinner and dancing! This year’s mission video highlighted Anchor’s past present and future and there was a cameo appearance from LeAnne Rhimes. This year our wonderful table hosts became virtual hosts by having personal fundraising webpages and reaching out to friends and family for their generous support.

We are so grateful to everyone who attended, donated and volunteered to make this year’s Sunset in the City a big success despite the challenges! Your support is so important in helping children with visual impairments and their families. We can’t possibly express that better than our parent speakers, Kiera and Lee, did at the event:

“What Anchor has provided to our family and many other families, is a road map. Our gratitude for this place runs deep inside and we will forever be thankful. In hindsight, I cannot even imagine where or who we would all be without having found Anchor. We watched Jordy find her love of music, we witnessed Jordy sit for the first time unassisted for 2 minutes (something we had been working on for 2 years!), we watched her stand on her own two feet-both so proud of this huge milestone we thought we would never see… We learned tools from the incredible therapists and teachers, how to communicate with Jordy-simple sign language we could start with her as an infant, we learned how to be creative-even attempting to set up a mini Anchor Center at our home so Jordy could thrive. They educated us, cried with us, laughed with us, but most of all they built us up as parents-giving us confidence and HOPE for the future. They celebrated EVERY SINGLE LITTLE step Jordy made. She was like a caterpillar coming in, and now has blossomed into the most beautiful butterfly we have ever seen.

Even though Jordy may be deaf, blind, non-verbal, and still learning how to move her body and navigate her world, we no longer focus on the things that she can’t do but rather celebrate ALL the little things she IS doing. We do not know what the future holds, so we embrace every day and hold each other tight. Being present in the moment and taking each day as it comes. We are all living in an uncertain world right now and for many of us, our teachers are our children’s lifeline. They are so under-appreciated. Finding people like Caroline, and the rest of the amazing Anchor teachers- who choose this work and show up every day for us are critical for our family’s lives, even our sanity. The children at Anchor need them even more than ever. We hope that hearing our story will open your eyes to what a gift this place is for both the families and their children with visual impairments.”

Our Sunset in the City event is over but there is still time to donate!

Sunset in the City 2020 Featured Video

Watch the inspirational speech by Kiera and Lee Zink!

Interested in hosting a table at our next Sunset in the City 2021? Contact Savannah Wippel at 303-377-9732 x156 or swippel@anchorcenter.org.