Beef, Beer, and More..and by more*

I think it was around November or so when Dustin started some IV treatment on his arm. We knew that the IV treatment was way more expensive than anything, anyone should ever have to pay for that type of thing. Being that Dustin is such a prideful guy, and would never ask for help, and convinced that the IV treatment was going to fix his arm, and that would be the end of all of this, a few of us thought about fundraising for Dustin.


Well everyone knows that the IV treatment was just the beginning, and that fundraising was no longer just a good idea, but more of a necessity. So, thus began, all of this Beef, Beer and More madness.


There were a few reasons we called if a Beef, Beer, and More. The obvious being that we had a whole lot more than Beef and Beer. We wanted as many people as possible to be excited to come. (This was when we thought that it wouldn’t sell out and we’d have to advertise like crazy). But also, because this fundraiser was way more than your average Beef and Beer.


I think Mike Carney said it best when we were setting up on Saturday. Mike, being a Delco native, said something along the lines of “this is no longer a Delaware County Beef and Beer…it’s a total Chester County fundraiser”


Anyways, the past 4 months have been crazy. I don’t think I’ve ever gone through the range of emotions I did, ever in my life. I can’t thank my mom and family enough for putting up with me. Our entire living room became Beef and Beer headquarters. Shortly thereafter, so did our garage. They saw me excited to help my friend, to being stressed out stuff wasn’t going as planned, or that none of the bigger corporations we asked for help would help us… They also saw my breaking point when I got a call from someone that told me what I was doing was against God… annnd I might have told her to F off and punched a granite counter top.


However, more than anything, there were tons of cool things that would happen. Whether it was a random check coming in the mail, saying “use this to help defray the costs of the Beef and Beer”, or us hearing back from a company that wanted to help. Or more than anything, words of encouragement from people. People wanting to help, understanding if they couldn’t. The support for this was amazing.
One of the coolest things about this whole process, was seeing how many different people from different areas of Dustin’s life, or that knew people that knew Dustin, wanted to help.


And trust me, EVERYONE wanted to help. The phrase “too many chef’s in the kitchen” was thrown around a time or two… Probably one of the funnier things about this was that people would tell us that they’ve planned these things before, or been to these things, and “this is how they are done”. Interestingly enough, every time we were told “this is how it’s done”, every person told us something different.


So the few us planning this, decided to do this our way. And we’re glad we did. Because we truly think we did this the way we would have if Dustin was planning it with us… So for everyone that was bummed they couldn’t “help” or whatever, don’t be. There’s gonna be more stuff, more opportunities to do stuff, to come out, etc. etc…. Plus, most people probably wouldn’t have been able to hang with our group.


The average meeting consisted of the following: John’s Pizza, sitting around the island in my parent’s kitchen, making crude jokes, making fun of each other, talk about what needs to get done, and who’s taking care of it, more making crude jokes. Throughout the week we’d all text each other, weren’t polite, yelled at each other, just because it’s easier to do that, then send each other nice, polite, drawn out e-mails. We might have been unorthodox in our planning, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. And I wouldn’t have wanted to work with a better group of people.
All I can say, is next years will be a million times smoother, and yes, there will be another one next year.

I’m in the process of sending out Thank You letter’s to everyone that donated to the event. Hopefully they will be out by the end of the week. If you contributed, and for whatever reason you didn’t get one. I really am sorry, and thank you.

It was beyond awesome how this all came together. I truly felt like the night couldn’t have gone better. Everyone that came out with a good attitude, and wanted to support a great cause. It was like a reunion in a lot of ways. There were so many people I haven’t seen in a long time, and so many people that I met for the first time, all because in some way, shape or form, Dustin has impacted their lives, or their friends lives, and they wanted to say thanks.


Everyone that donated raffle and auction items, THANK YOU! Not only was it a great way to raise money for Dustin. It was also so cool, that people that came out to support, also had the opportunity to walk away with some of the nicest prizes I’ve seen in a long time. Everyone went above and beyond that donated.


Also, thanks to our raffle ticket salespeople. Great job hustlin’ tickets to make money for D… Thanks to everyone for their generosity buying tickets.
Everyone that helped work before, during, and after the event, thank you! You truly showed what it means to volunteer. Most of you paid for tickets, and didn’t think twice about wanting to help work during the event. That is truly selfless.


We were beyond lucky to know all of the people that we knew. We needed tables, a tent, and cooking gear. Aaron Thompson gathered up all of his Taylor Rentals crew, and made it happen.


We needed a DJ, a good friend stepped up and was more than happy to do so. The same went with our cook, and getting t-shirts printed. Everyone from Victory was great. The entire event was great.

I’ve probably retyped this 3 times already. And every time I read over it, I feel like I leave so many things out. I feel like I can’t quite explain how last night went. And maybe that’s a good thing. You can’t really put it into words. Last night, a few hundred people came out to support someone I am lucky enough to call my best friend. I don’t care one bit about the money that was raised. I don’t care one bit that the food was amazing, or the beer tasted good. I don’t care that we auctioned off Mike Schmidt baseballs, or flat screen TV’s.


At the end of the night, Dustin had a smile on his face. He’s inspired a whole lot of people, and I’m so glad he was there the whole time. He’s the best dude I know, and I know everyone that put this on, would be more than happy to do it all over again for him.


The night was a great success, and thank you one more time for everyone that came out. Not one thing went wrong, and that in itself is a miracle (funny side note, I’ve probably looked at that t-shirt design 50 times, and showed it to Dustin, Shelby, and all of the people planning this… not one of us noticed Myers is misspelled, but seriously, if you can’t laugh at that, then you are focusing way too much on the negative)… So if that’s the worst thing that happens at a fundraiser for Dustin, I think we are on the right path…


If you want to donate to Dustin, please do so by sending a check to his Mom’s house where he is staying. Checks can be made payable to The Friends of Dustin J Myers. The address is 108 Church Rd. Malvern, Pa 19355.


I’ll have pictures of the event up on here soon. And at some point a video.


*And for everyone that is curious. All of your donations, ticket sales, silent auction winnings, and raffle tickets, helped to raise almost $23,000 for Dustin! Your generosity is incredible. And Dustin is lucky to have such amazing people in his life.