I’m still a little bit in awe of last Saturday night.  I arrived at the Fairmont at 9:00 am dressed in jeans and a beat up t-shirt to find room after room of boxes and empty tables.  Far from glamorous, gala day dawned grey and cold, and instead of that Fairmont grandeur, I was surrounded with cardboard boxes needing to be unpacked.  And yet, somehow, just 14 hours later I found myself dancing in the Pavillion Room, in high heels and a fancy dress and everyone was telling me the Merola Spring Benefit Gala had been a great success!

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We are delighted to announce that a brilliant Wotan of our day, Mark Delavan (Merola ’85), will appear at Merola’s Spring Benefit this Saturday, May 15. Mr. Delavan is in San Francisco preparing for his performances in Die Walküre.  Previously scheduled to appear at the Spring Benefit, John Relyea (Merola ‘95), with regret, was forced to withdraw due to a temporary health issue; however, he is fully expected to recover in time for his role as Méphistophélès in San Francisco Opera’s production of Faust.

With great pleasure, we confirm that Merola Alums Patricia Racette and Mark Morash will appear as scheduled at our Benefit/Gala on Saturday.

Sometimes I am blown away by how quickly time flies.

The last time I wrote about the Spring Benefit, it was still months away, and I felt like we had all the time in the world to pull together the details. But yesterday, Michelle mentioned that we were just three weeks away from the big event. I was stunned. Three weeks!? Three weeks!? Where did the time go? All those months and months I had to pull together the minutiae? But luckily, when I sat down to look at all the millions of things that still needed to be completed, I realized that the planning had been done. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I looked over all my notes and found that three weeks might just be enough.

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The greatest part of planning an event like the Merola Spring Benefit is when, after months of planning and countless lists and emails and phone calls, you finally get a chance to see something tangible.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the tasting for the Spring Benefit and, I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty ecstatic about the event now. 

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