A Night with the Missouri River

On December 15th, all of us at Missouri River Communities Network had a great opportunity to collaborate with other local river organizations and to increase our presence here in Columbia. We had already scheduled a fundraiser at Shakespeare's Pizza when Missouri River Relief approached us to see if we wanted to help host a movie premiere at Rag Tag Cinema. How could we refuse! We began promoting Tuesday the 15th as a "dinner and a movie night" for river lovers in Columbia and throughout Missouri.

The movie we helped promote at Rag Tag was a documentary titled "The Next 340 Miles." This feature-length film chronicles the Missouri River 340, the longest river race in the world. Racers begin in Kansas City, MO and must reach St. Charles, MO in 88 hours or less!

Tickets for the showing sold out quickly, and for good cause! Not only did attendees get to view the film, a panel discussion followed that included filmmaker Jodi Pfefferkorn, race organizer Scott Mansker and a number of veteran racers.

Following the film, we encouraged everyone to continue the fun and head on over to Shakespeare's Pizza, which is just a few blocks from the cinema. All day, when anyone presented a flier with their order, Shakespeare's donated 15% of the proceeds to MRCN! We made over $120 just by getting people to eat their favorite pizza!

What a great way to wrap up the year! Thanks to Shakespeare's Pizza and Rag Tag for hosting the events and to Missouri River Relief and Rivermiles for being great partners.