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For the fifth year in a row, our little blog community has pooled our money together — just under $20,000 this year! — to send a bunch of deserving kids to a Phoenix Suns basketball game!
This effort is the greatest thing that Bright Side does because we are raising that money in small increments ($9 at a time) and keeping it amongst us. We are not looking for corporate money, or any big individual donors. This is just us, who suffer together as we follow the Suns year in and year our no matter how few games they win.
We should be so proud of ourselves for setting a new record for how many kids we are sending to tonight’s Suns game versus the Sacramento Kings.
We also owe a sincere thanks to the Suns themselves for matching every single donation you made this year, doubling the number of kids we help. Thanks Suns!
For tonight’s game, we have handed out 4,248 tickets to local schools and kids organizations that focus on working with children who need a little extra support and love in their lives.
Here’s our growth over the years, thanks to YOU:
- 2015-16 season: 825
- 2016-17 season: 1,200
- 2017-18 season: 2,200
- 2018-19 season: 3,300
- 2019-20 season: 4,248!
Now these kids get a chance to go to their first NBA game tonight when the Suns host the Sacramento Kings!
The kids and their chaperones get to experience the unique feel of walking amongst 15,000 other like-minded fans donning their Suns gear, hoping for a good result on the court. They get to sit in seats with their friends and watch a pair of live professional basketball teams play the game at the highest level it can be played in the entire world. They get to watch Kelly Oubre Jr. shimmy and shake his way into their hearts, They get to watch Devin Booker and Buddy Hield rain jumpers from all over the court. They get to watch Ricky Rubio pick apart the other team’s defense, while on the other end they can see the blur that is De’Aaron Fox slice and dice his way to the basket.
Thank you again for donating to Bright Side Night!
Ticket winners
About 140 of us are going to tonight’s game with our free tickets for sending at least 20 kids to Bright Side Night tonight. When you get to the game, take a look around the upper deck and know that most of the kids in that section are there because of Bright Side. A few hundred of them should be wearing our custom, bright orange, Bright Side Night T-shirts!
Pregame Q and A with James Jones
About 40 of us will get 20-30 minutes alone with Suns General Manager James Jones to ask any questions we have for him. This will be James’ third year meeting with some donors and he’s been a class act every time. See you there! Everyone at the Q and A get a custom Bright Side Night 2020 T-Shirt.
Pregame on-court honoring
About 25 of us, in our orange Bright Side Night 2020 T-Shirts, to walk onto the court to be thanked by the Suns for our contributions. A video will be taken to commemorate the experience. Just download the ‘15 seconds of fame’ (15SOF) app to get a copy of the video.
Raffle Winners
When you donated, you were entered into some raffles to stuff for yourself. And we have named some winners, after putting all the eligible donors into a random number generator to ensure the sanctity of an equal chance for every entrant.
Suns VIP experience raffle winner: GLEN SISK
Congrats Glen!
Glen wins the VIP experience package! Now Glen gets to work with our Suns ticket rep to pick the Suns game of his choice, get early courtside access to watch the players warm up, watch the game from premium seats in the lower bowl, and go home with a signed Deandre Ayton jersey!
Suns jersey raffle: JULIAN AGULIRE, DAVE MORINCHI, DEV PAWAR
Congrats Julian, Dave and Dev!
You three get to pick your very own Suns player jersey off the rack from the Team Store. You don’t even need to live in town! Our ticket rep, Connor, can pick up the jersey and ship it to you. He will be in touch with you in the coming days to work out the details.
Bright Night Side 2020 T-shirt raffle: TBD
Later this week, once I know how many shirts we’ve got left over, I will pull some more names out of the hat to get your very own custom t-shirt as a big thanks for your donation.