Kiss a Pig Results from the Loudoun County Fair

Saturday night was the finale of the Kiss a Pig fundraising campaign for the Loudoun County Fair (and the last night of the fair, too).  I arrived in time to turn in my donations, with the ceremony starting at 6 pm.  At 5 pm they told me I would have to introduce myself at the ceremony in front of about 300 people (who were there to watch the rodeo directly following, of course).

There were three other ‘candidates’ this year, including Sola Pallotta, owner of the Pink Shop on King Street in Leesburg, Wayne Bramhall of the Loudoun Times Mirror, and Joe Myer of Merrill Lynch. Together I think we raised over $4,000 to support the fairgrounds and their scholarship programs.

As it turned out, Joe was the winner, getting to smooch the big pig in the middle of the horse ring.  He won a beautiful engraved belt buckle and the adoration of all the folks in Loudoun County. (grin)  A friend of mine who won the Kiss a Pig a few years back said that he still gets called out in public places: “Hey, Kiss a Pig! How you doin?” I’m sure Joe will enjoy that in the months to come!

I believe I got bonus points for running the most creative campaign; I don’t think anyone has ever taken donations via a Paypal account before.  I had a blast stumping for the fair, and maybe if I’m lucky they will let me participate again sometime in the future.

While I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to smooch the pig (no, really!) I am proud of the money that I raised.  I want send out a huge thank you to all of the members at Westpark (especially the Leesburg Golf Association guys, you know who you are) and all of my Twitter friends from the real estate web 2.0 community across the country who stepped up to donate and cheer me on.  One special thank you goes to Gary Thomey, a member at Westpark and a friend of mine, who won the shootout at Westpark following the Beat the Pro tournament two weeks ago, and donated all his winnings to my campaign.  (Waving.. hi Gary!!)

I hope that my local readers had a chance to stop by the fair and enjoy the 4H barns, the midway, the rodeo, the great food, the demolition derby… If you missed out this year, mark your calendars for July 26th through August 1, 2009!

Cheers,
Heather