Finally, my secret is revealed!!

I’ve been bursting at the seams for weeks, but I managed to keep my secret quiet — and tonight, I can finally spill the beans!! Right at this moment, I’m sitting in a B&B in Shediac, New Brunswick after an amazing evening at Matt LeBlanc’s Art for Life Gala!!!

I was really bummed about not being able to meet up with Matt on our trip to Nova Scotia in August. So I formulated a cunning plan… a weekend trip to PEI in September to celebrate our anniversary, with a side trip to Dieppe to attend the gala. It didn’t take much to convince hubby!! We flew to Charlottetown this morning on possibly the smallest plane ever, drove to our B&B in Shediac, and then down to Dieppe for the gala this evening. And WOW, it was awesome!!

Dieppe Arts and Culture Centre

The evening began with a presentation in the theatre. Matt put together a fantastic video about his campaign. He’s a funny guy :-) And then the gallery with all 200 campaign paintings was opened to everyone at the gala. It was so cool to see all of the paintings together. I couldn’t quite get all 200 into my pictures, but close. (I just realized I forgot to take a picture of the overflow in the hallway. Oops!!)

   

These paintings should look familiar to some DesignTies readers, starting with Vanessa at Decor Happy:

Lisa at Lisa Goulet Design:

My friend Maureen at Modecor bought this one:

And here’s Victoria’s:

Matt brought his entire inventory of paintings and donated 25% of each one sold to cancer research. Melanie Roy of Me Bijoux was there selling her beautiful jewelry and donated all the money she made tonight to Matt’s campaign. (Melanie, it was great to meet you too!!) She created a special collection of necklace & earring sets especially for this event.

There was a silent auction and a live auction, which I’m sure raised another $6,000-$7,000. Matt planned to auction off one 4’ x 4’ custom painting, but when the first one sold for $2,000, someone encouraged him to auction off a second one — he did, and that one went for $1,750!! And he auctioned off a 4’ x 4’ original, which sold for $1,000. I was thrilled to be able to help out with a JAX e-design consultation that was auctioned off for $350. Matt has way surpassed his goal of raising $25,000. He said he thinks he might be up to $40,000 after tonight!!

Thanks to all our DT friends who supported Matt’s campaign by spreading the word on your blogs, tweeting about it, and/or buying a painting. I know Matt is beyond thrilled with the outcome!!

At the end of the gala, everyone was able to leave with their campaign paintings. Wish I could have brought #27 home with me, but remember what I said at the top of the post about flying on the smallest plane ever?? Yeah, not gonna happen!! Matt said he’ll put mine in the mail on Monday — I’m holding you to that, Matt!!

  Me & Matt & #27

Matt and I had never met before tonight, but he made me feel like we’ve been lifelong friends. You’d be hard-pressed to find a kinder, more gracious, and more generous guy than Matt LeBlanc. Now I hope he takes a break from painting and spends some time with Colette and their kids. And get lots of sleep!!

So that’s one of my big secrets revealed. I may have one or two others up my sleeve… stay tuned!!