The Inaugural Do It For Durrett Benefit… It Was That Kind Of Night

... one that we won't soon forget.

You know what kind of night it was? The opportunity to go watch horse racing with Randy Galloway raised $14,000. That’s right. Fourteen thousand dollars.

You know what kind of night it was? Derek Holland is going on two dates instead of one because it brought it more money.

You know what kind of night it was? We raised $5,000 in raffle ticket sales in less than an hour.

You know what kind of night it was? More than ten percent of the crowd of around 1,200 bought tickets the day of the show.

You know what kind of night it was? Rangers players wanted to make sure they didn’t get outbid on auction items.

You know what kind of night it was? Randy Rogers was serenading people to help the #DoItForDurrett family.

It was the kind of night where we can’t thank the performers – Daphne Willis, Casey Donahew (who flew in from New York, on his own dime, to be at the show), Wade Bowen, the aforementioned Randy Rogers – enough.

Then, there’s Rhett Miller – who never met Richard Durrett or his family – who brought up the idea for the whole event.

Super thanks to Michael Young, Colby Lewis, Tanner Scheppers, Robbie Ross, Neal Cotts, Daniel Robertson, Mike Modado, Marty Turco. Jon Daniels, Thad Levine, Michael Kirkman, Matt Harrison, J.P. Arencibia, Mike Maddux. All were there, and more.

In between the live sets of music, Chuck Morgan and John Rhadigan stoked the live auction fires on stage.

[A note from the web guy: Emily Jones McCoy, Anthony Andro and Jeff Wilson did so much work to put this event together. They deserve so many kudos, and will accept none. With luck, they’re sleeping in a little later this morning, but I doubt it.]

Thanks to everyone who’s followed @DoItForDurrett, spread the word, bought a ticket, thought of Richard, thought of the family. All of the sponsors – Texas Land & Cattle, Ben E. Keith, the Mike Modano Foundation, D&M Leasing, the Original Traveling Photo Booth, Albertsons, A Sign Solutions, Breeze Energy, Edward Jones, Coopers Old-Time Pit Bar-B-Q, Crazy Water. Billy Bob’s Texas, who gave us the use of the whole facility for free, so all of the proceeds could go to the Durrett family without production overhead. All of the volunteers, who were sensational green-shirted troopers.

We’ll announce the final tally later today, but right now we know we have over 125,000 reasons to think it was a night no one will soon forget.