My name is Tanya Knuutti (MissVictoryStar), and I am a lead with Stack-up.org’s San Francisco Stack. I was honoured to become a lead with the San Francisco Stack, but I really didn’t plan for it to happen that way. Back in July, I was invited to what I thought was just a regular summer barbeque, to which I hesitantly attended, despite knowing only the person I was coming with.
I came to find out that this barbeque was one of Regional Director and San Francisco Stack member Anthony Keeton’s (CruelRogue) fundraiser events for Stack-up.org. I made friends, played video games, and ate great food. I knew I had to learn more about Stack-up and its mission, because if its goals were as great as its members, I had just met, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get involved. A want to give a special thanks, Emily and Joshua Burke for the initial invite to the Stack-up barbeque and James Hazelip (SilverHawk) for nominating me to Anthony Keeton as a potential Stack-Up lead, and to Anthony Keeton for making it official.
As a celebration of becoming one of the SF Stack lead’s, I knew I had to host an event. I probably put more thought into what I would do for my first event than was necessary. Despite this, I simply ended up opting for what originally drew me in, a fundraising barbeque. It was on Saturday, October 15, 2016, that I attempted to host the first barbeque of my life. My amazing mother came early in the early A.M. to try to claim the best barbeque benched area in Luchessi Park in Petaluma. She put out laminated signs that read, “Reserved for Stack-up.org Fundraising Event”. Closer to noon, I showed up praying people respected our efforts, which they did.
Luchessi Park was the perfect destination: a built-in barbeque area, a park for the little ones, and even cute ducks to watch, all surrounded by over 15 Poke-Stops! I was worried when not many people were showing up, but it just turned out that everyone was running late. We ended up having a great turn out. We then fired off the grill, and the party started. We put out lures for our Pokemon Go players, while we munched on yummy potluck food.
We played corn hole, caught up with old friends, made new friends, all while educating people on what Stack-Up.org is, how it benefits veterans, and how we can come together to achieve its goals. I handed out leftover Stack-Up cards, stickers and bracelets I from our Stack-Up booth at Twitch Con 2016, and even made a snazzy anonymous donation box, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Stack-Up.org. Everyone attendee I spoke to had fun. In all, we raised $214 for Stack-Up.org. I look forward to doing it again and hope my next event can be even better.
More special thanks to: Brendan Brown for supporting me in everything, Laura and Michael Knuutti, who are my wonderful parents, Larry and Laura Brown for letting us use their nice grill and doing a lot of the grilling, Sally Anne Hobbs for taking photos, and to everyone else who attended and/or donated food and/or money at my event/ supports Stack-Up in general.
Tanya Knuutti (MissVictoryStar), San Francisco Stack Co-Lead