David,
Bravo!!!! You are a very wise man.
The Kirkhams donated the car to raise money for CF, they didn't say it had to raise XXXXX dollars. If the car only raised $5000, that's $5000 more than CF had before. If the only purpose of the Fling was to raise as much money as possible, than the best thing to do would to have everyone figure how much it would cost them to go, write a check for that amount, mail it to CF, then all stay home.
I didn't make it to the first two events, but I damn well am going to try to make it to the third. Why? Because of the cars, the events, and the people. The chance to win an awsome car and donating to CF are just a bonus.
Ok, I'm going to go back to my upper-lower-middle class life now and see how much money I can save up for raffle tickets.
Greg