Hey David (and as I typed this, everyone else who has responded!), thank you for your kind words-you've now embarrassed me thoroughly (and thought that only occurred as I scrolled through Jason Bourne's giveaway of one of my donations, where every picture was of Kate Beckinsale-scantily clad, to my excitement!).
Ninja Week 2014, all events before, and all in the future are team efforts. I am very proud to be part of our ever-growing community, and humbled. This was the
biggest Ninja Week we have ever had, due to our amazing and generous community, Staff and dedicated Section Supervisors who donated amazing prizes, helped in getting some of our site friends and retailers involved, and come here every day fired up with their love and enthusiasm for all things entertainment-we could not have done anything like this without them.
But, it goes without saying (but as you know me, I'll say it anyway, ha!)...that it is because of
Wreck that we are all here to begin with. He said several months ago that he wished this Ninja Week to be 'biggest ever', and it was. It's something he should not have said at all, because it was then that the event grew and grew in scope with our Staff, Section Supervisors and everyone else involved, catching 'the fire' of Ninja Week'14. A huge thank you goes to him, for his passion 5 years ago, and now, in creating this community, which continues to blossom significantly based on the 'vibe' and many ideas he's implemented.
Hats off to apsmith21, a friend, and long-time member who assisted in creating our initial time slots and outline for the week, including the idea for our 'Bonus' Sunday day of giveaways (we had so many prizes, they didn't fit in just a Monday-Saturday schedule!), all of our Section Supervisors behind the scenes, who helped literally
every hour of this event to make sure giveaways were live, and for all of the coordination everyone did in order to get winners notified. All of this took place across multiple time zones, to ensure everyone had a chance to coordinate, and enter a great variety of contests.
With an event of this size, which we plan to grow in the future, there is quite a bit of coordination occurring. But, I thoroughly enjoy that as those types of projects are part of my life in other arenas of my experience base, and I've always been in coach 'roles' , for years. I think this community's general 'vibe' of being creative, helpful and positive, providing feedback, and sharing their love of entertainment flowed over into our event this year and everyone seems to have enjoyed it.
All of our passionate entertainment fans and collectors and friends made at this site, via trades or common interests, and their generosity helped grow this community and NINJA WEEK 2014 even bigger than it was to begin with. And, the willingness by our members, who were not originally on the master schedule, at all, to host impromptu giveaways, allowed our members to enter to win well over
200 items-including 2 gaming consoles and many popular Steelbooks, Blu-rays, Limited Edition sets contributed by the HDN Staff and Section Sups, a Sideshow Figure, and many sought after collectibles. It was truly awesome, and so much fun for us all to see your amazing enthusiasm and generosity from all of you!
Thanks again for your kind words directed towards the site, everyone. Ninja Week always has been a team endeavor, and we look forward to shattering some more community records in 2015!