Dream Camera for Aimee

Hello Friends of Bone,

You may or may not yet know, but our beloved and very special friend Aimee Bonamie is leaving us on December 22. She's heading back home to Florida after 4 magical years in Brooklyn.

It seems impossible to imagine, but Aimee was a stranger when we hired her to sling drinks at Full Circle Bar back in 2009. We wanted one bartender unconnected to the league to be a part of the opening staff, a little fresh blood (and a cute girl) to spice things up. She answered a Craigslist ad and was the first person Mike interviewed. Immediately after Mike met with Aimee he called me and said, "I found her. I know I've only interviewed one person out of the 75 inquiries, but it doesn't get any better than this girl from Gainesville."

Mike was right.

We opened the doors to FCB not entirely knowing what it would be. We had this beautiful and bizarre skee-ball league, we had a staff full of rollers, we had a club not yet a bar. Thankfully, we had this sweet new chick named Aimee who in the early going ensured that our infatuation with skee-ball, high fives and chanting didn't scare the entire neighborhood away.

You could drink with Aimee, you could chat and chill with Aimee, people came not just for the love of the lane, but for the love of Aimee. She no doubt put the "Bar" in Full Circle Bar and beyond that she put her heart, soul and smile into it. She's been the best goddamn bartender in the world and an even better friend and holy crap we're going to miss her.

I can write forever about Bone and the infinite amount of excellent nights we've all shared with her these past 4 years. Those nights were her gift to us and now I'm asking you to help raise some money so we can give back to Aimee and send her off with the camera of her dreams.

As you all know, Bone loves whiskey. She also loves photography and she's an exceptional artist. We've also been lucky that she has been so generous with her talent, taking photos of many important league and bar moments. She's captured our weddings, snapped our headshots and yes, there are even some nude portraits floating around somewhere. However, Aimee has never had the photography tools she's wanted. She has a camera, but she has to borrow or rent more professional gear for gigs.

It's our hope that we can raise enough to get the Canon EOS 5D Mark III DSLR Camera. She's had her eye on this baby for a long time. It's her Excalibur, like Wayne's "Fender Stratocaster with triple single coil pickups and a whammy bar."

Let's harness our love for Aimee and pool our resources to get her this very special gift. She will love it dearly and use it well. Thanks in advance, please donate whatever you can. We'll present the camera to her with a sweet card containing all of your names at her Going Away Party at FCB on Friday, December 20, so please make your donation as soon as possible.

Also, please note that this is a total surprise, so keep your lips sealed about the camera if you hang with Aimee between now and December 20.

Thanks so much guys, our little Bone is going to flip!