Amy Worden is the Sales Manager at the Overland Park Convention Center.
The Overland Park Convention Center has been working with the Catholic Education Foundation on the Gaudeamus event for over a decade. The event supports CEF’s mission by raising millions of scholarship dollars for Catholic education. I have witnessed their success first hand. Year after year I have watched their growth both in event attendance and the contributions raised during their annual fundraiser.
When the event started CEF had just under 300 event attendees. This year the OPCC is preparing for 1,400 guests on October 25th. There is a lot of planning that goes into making Gaudeamus happen.
Have you ever thought about feeding 1,400 guests? Here is a look at our shopping list:
- 700 hearts of romaine lettuce
- 22 gallons of salad dressing
- 44 gallons of heavy cream
- 131 lbs of mushrooms
- 175 lbs of fresh berries
- 88 lbs of orzo
- 263 lbs of boursin cheese
- 350 lbs of green beans
- 350 lbs of steak
- 350 lbs of chicken
Pulling off a dinner of this magnitude also takes many hours of culinary man power: 10 chefs, 12 kitchen assistants, 75 waiters, and 10 bartenders will be preparing your meal and serving you throughout your evening.
Now that you are hungry, it’s not all about the food. The planning of this event takes a full year to execute and involves all OPCC departments from our operations team who sets up the room, to our audio visual technicians who enhance the ambiance of the room to make the CFE’s visions come to life. We are honored to host an organization that is focused on youth education and changing the lives of our future generations.
