my email event do not work

I am a newbe.
I am trying to send a message on a beforeAdd event.
I have the following code:
[codebox]//** Send email with new data ****
$email="alan@sfvcc.com";

$message="";

$subject="New data record";
foreach($values as $field=>$value)

$message.= $field." : ".$value."\r\n";
mail($email, $subject, $message);
return true;
// return true if you like to proceed with adding new record

// return false otherwise

[/codebox]
I am not sure what I am missing here but no message ever gets sent.
I also would like to send a message to the poster. Any pointers would be appreciated.