Make a Splash – 2015

The Mary Moon Foundation is proud to announce our fourth annual event to be held at the Water Park of America! Please join us for our fundraising event to support children at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital.

• What: Water Park Attractions, Food, Merchandise, and Silent Auction!
• Where: Water Park of America, Bloomington, MN
• When: Sunday, March 8th, 2015, 3:00pm to 10:00pm (new expanded hours!)
• How: Register Now Online: Register
• Pricing: $15.00/person. Under 18 months free!

In Preparation for Your Water Park Visit

To ensure we have a smooth and quick process at the start of our event on March 8th, please complete the waiver form in advance of your arrival.
You can arrive any time after 2:30 pm on the day of the event with a completed waiver form. Each attendee 18+ years needs to have their own waiver form completed and signed. Up to six children can be on one parent’s waiver form. A family of 2 adults & 2 kids would have two forms; one with a parent’s signature and two children, the second for the other parent.
Children attending with someone other than their parent or unattended children (between the ages of 13-17) must have their parents sign the waiver form in advance of the event, with their children’s name and an emergency phone number listed.
Your help with this process will make sure we get everyone in the park in a timely fashion. The waiver form is downloadable here.

• Turn in Waiver Forms (please complete in advance of your arrival)
• We can take credit cards for all Mary Moon transactions; walk-in registration, food, coat check, raffle tickets, auction items, Mary Moon merchandise, etc.
• The Water Park provides towels
• Strollers are not allowed in park
• Pack lightly (lockers are limited)
• Coat and baggage check available for $3.00

Your Help is Appreciated

Please visit our Facebook page to Like and Share it with others! We have many pictures there of last year’s event and some of our favorite of Mary! Please use the Invite feature to invite your friends to like our page! (Left hand side of the page – click the “Invite” button next to each friend’s name).

Here’s the Photo Stream.

News and Updates:

2015 Event Highlights

Posted February 15th, 2015

This year we are excited to bring some new attractions and improve the current ones.

Entertainment by Freddie Justice

Join us for the “Freddie Justice Comedy Hypnosis Show” from 5:30 to 6:30. Admission is free, it’s included with your event registration. We have one of the large hotel meeting rooms reserved for the special event! His show is appropriate for all ages, and of course he is looking for a few brave volunteers – is that you? For more information see Freddie’s FAQ.

Starting Earlier

This year we continue to expand the hours of operations for our guests. We start at 3:00pm and the park is open until 10:00pm. Our key times are:

• 3:00 Event Begins
• Auction is open for bids
• Mary Moon Merchandise for Sale: Jewelry, Shirts, and Blankets
• Cash Bar Open
• Music Starts!
• Xbox One Raffle Tickets available for purchase
• Vendor Exhibition starts
• 4:30 Food is served for only $5.00/person, includes treat and beverage
• 5:30 Freddie Justice Comedy Hypnosis Show
• 7:20 Xbox One Raffle Drawing! Need not be present to win – buy online now!
• 7:30 Silent Auction Ends!
• 8:00 Mary Moon activities conclude
• 10:00 Water Park Closes

New and Improved

We have improved our operations and facility to enhance the experience:

• Locker rooms remodeled for more space
• Faster wristbands to deploy
• More space added for seating and eating
• Coat Check

Great Start to our 4th Annual Event:

Posted January 5th, 2015

Thank you for the early registrations, donations, and offers to volunteer.

We are a small organization of volunteers and our success is reflective of the assistance we get from our community. Your efforts promoting the event and our upcoming auctions can be very impactful. As we did last year, we will have both an online auction (eBay) that is available to everyone, and a silent auction at the event.

For those of you interested; here’s a list of the various ways you may choose to support or organization:

• Donate Auction Baskets:
Many of our fantastic auction baskets are donated by wonderful people like you! People find it fun and rewarding to build and donate a basket to our auction; popular themes are; Date Night, Movie Night, Sports Equipment, or some people even donate a set of their season tickets to a pro sports team.
• Promote the Event:
There are many way to promote our event:
• Sharing www.marymoonfoundation.org with others via email or social media
• Sharing our posts from our public Facebook page each week: www.facebook.com/marymoonfoundation
• Going to our Facebook page and using the Invite feature to invite your friends to like our page! (Left hand side of the page – click the “Invite” button next to each friend’s name).
• Download and post our Flyer at your place of employment and other locations; church, schools, coffee shops, etc.
• Distribute flyers; Peter and Christine can provide with you 10, 30, 80, whatever you think you can distribute. Just email us; peterpokeefe@outlook.com
• Share our Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MaryMoonFoundation
• Provide items for the Auctions: Perhaps you, your employer, or someone you know has a product or services they can provide? You can download our Donation Letter to provide to any businesses you frequent.
• Sponsor the Event: We still have sponsorship opportunities open to help support our expenses. Our sponsorships range from $500 to $5000. Sponsors are acknowledged on our website and on signage at the event. You can download our Sponsorship Prospectus and visit our Donate page for more information.

Later in February our website will announce online auction details and have the waiver form available for download. This waiver form must be completed by all attendees. It helps speed up entrance to the water park by having them completed in advance. If you have any comments, questions, or ideas, please contact us at info@marymoonfoundation.org

Thank you for your support, Peter and Christine

Announcing our 4th Annual Event!

Sunday, March 8th, 2015

Posted 12/15/2014

Greetings! The Mary Moon Foundation is proud to announce our fourth annual event to be held at the Water Park of America on Sunday, March 8th 2015! Our fundraising event will support the financing of art supplies, toys, games, and more for Children at the University of Minnesota Amplatz Children’s Hospital. Please visit Our Foundation page to learn more!

Thank you very much for supporting our event last year! We continue to grow and expand; our proceeds from our third year were more than our first two years combined! We couldn’t have done it without you!!

Our third event had over 1500 attendees, more than either of the first two years. This year we will expand the hours to 3:00pm to 10:00pm, with the primary activities wrapping up by 8:00pm. We anticipate another large online and silent auctions with over 150 items!

As a 501c3 tax exempt organization we hope to continue to expand our opportunities to receive donations or financial sponsorships. Please sign up for our newsletter to be kept informed on the activities of our organization. We were very grateful for the support from our friends last year. We hope to have support from many of them again and from anyone else interested in volunteering.

Positions we are seeking:

• Production Staff to work with Christine on Jewelry
• Staff for our Donation and Sponsorship Teams
• Staff to help constructing the Auction baskets
• Decorations Staff to work with Christine on the event decorations and signage
• Promotional Staff to help drive attendance
• Event Staff to work the day-of on March 8th

If you are interested in helping this year please contact us at peterpokeefe@outlook.com

Mary "Moon" Jacqueline O'Keefe died at the age of 3 on July 30th, 2009 after a yearlong battle with neuroblastoma, a cancer that is most common in infancy. Mary loved the attention and activities Child Family Life Services provided her at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, this allowed her to be distracted during painful treatments and to be engaged in learning activities while in the hospital.

Please visit Our Foundation to learn more about Mary and her parents' goals with our new foundation.