Posted by The Chmaber Day 2000 Committee on May 05, 2000 at 14:15:23:
Whew!!!!
It's been a long haul but we surpassed even OUR wildest dreams this year and amassed a grand total of $78,237 for the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber. Just so you know, that's the actual amount that the Chamber will net so there are no other major expenses that have to be taken out of that total. But to say it's stunning doesn't even begin to do it justice.
To put this all in perspective, consider that Chamber Day #2 (1990), the furthest back that we have records, had boat tickets at $55/each with 13 boats participating, taking over 260 divers, and took in a grand total of $14,540. But bear in mind that for this event, all we had going was the daytime diving - there were no extra raffle tickets, no Michael Kane Challenge, no Chamber Evening, and no evening raffle.
This year, we had 342 divers (plus 8 guests, 24 DMs, and 57 boat crew members - in addition to the Chamber Crew members on the island) for the daytime event, over 90 contributors to the Michael Kane Challenge, and 344 diners (plus 17 Aquarium Dive Team volunteers, 4 Education volunteers, and still more Chamber Crew members) for the evening event at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. Needles to say, we've come a long way since 1989.
What's really interesting is that, by expanding the raffle and improving the quality of the prizes and with the addition of Chamber Evening and the Michael Kane Challenge, we've raised almost as much in the last two years ($145,525) as we estimate that we did in the first ten years ($180,000). Not too shabby.
Although we'll post separate thank yous, we simply could not do this without the help, cooperation and generous donation of time of all the boats and their owners/crews, those who volunteer to DM, stores & clubs & orgs that persuade their members to participate, the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, and the manufacturers who donate raffle prizes. It's truly a group effort and it's so nice to see that the diving community can pull together for an event like this.
Here's the way our official tally breaks down. (Some numbers may change a bit after we do our final audit but the swing shouldn't be much and - as the saying goes - this is our story and we're sticking to it.)
Chamber Day dives - 23,940
Daytime raffle (all) - 3,788
Merch. @ Chamber - 2,630
Chamber Evening (est. net) - 12,720
Evening raffle - 4,057
Evening Chamber merch. - 440
MHK Chall. (incl. MHK) - 30,662
GRAND TOTAL - $78,237
Many thanks to all who made this such a success. Mark Chamber Day (lucky) 13 on your calendar . . . Wednesday, May 2, 2001.
THE CHAMBER DAY 2000 COMMITTEE