Posted by Chmaber Day/Eve 2003 on May 09, 2003 at 13:27:59:
Thank you all for once again making Chamber Day & Eve a resounding success and a true financial boost for our Chamber. The final tally that we announced at Chamber Evening was a whopping $77,125. This actually sets a new record for the event (amazing given this economy and my early predictions of as much as a 30% drop from last year). Although we had one year where we did $82,000, that included a single $10,000 (the seed money for the Challenge), so when you factor that out, we've hot new heights.
We also want to take a moment to single out the Aquarium of the Pacific for special thanks, above and beyond being the co-sponsor of the evening event. As many of you know, weather played a major concern this year and there was a very real fear that we would not be able to get the boats over to Catalina. (We did end up losing the Horizon, who could not make the trip up from San Diego, due to the swell. However, they pitched in a with a $750 donation to the Challenge.) Rather than having to cancel the event outright (and deal with trying to convince people that they should let us keep their money anyhow), for the first time ever we cam up with "Plan B" which would have involved taking everyone to the Aquarium for the day, and staging special tours, the raffle, feeding people, and all the other festivities there. Not only did we put this together in a little over a day (Monday), but the Aquarium agreed to do whatever they could to help the Chamber and make this event happen.
I want to personally single out the efforts of Animal Husbandry Director Perry Hampton, Aquarium President & CEO Jerry Schubel, and Aquarium Special Events Co_ordinator (not sure if that's her title but it's probably close enough) Linda Glasco for everything they did. Perry really served as point man for me in discussing logistics and bringing Jerry into the loop. Jerry gave the overall approval and go-ahead for the plan, and Linda worked with me on logistics. Basically, this whole thing was in an "on-call" basis until 7:30AM Wednesday morning when we were far enough out that we were sure we could make it over. So on all levels, thanks to the Aquarium of the Pacific and their support of the SoCal diving community and specifically and these individuals. (It also underscores there's a lot that happens with this event that stays out of the limelight.)
We set some records this year:
• Most divers ever to sign up: 411 (including 66, 16%, on the Flying Dutchman)
• Most daytime raffle dollars: $5,485
• Most raffle prizes - daytime, evening, and on-board: over $30,000 (thanks again to all the mfgs and thanks to Bill Wright for being the procurer)
• Most people to attend Chamber Evening: 356
• Most evening raffle dollars: $7,170
• Counting all diver, diners, and volunteers: Over 1000 people involved with this event, making it (as best we can tell) the largest single-day scuba charity event in the US
We will now do some audits to confirm all of our numbers, some of which are generated on-the-fly, so the actual total may vary a bit from what we announced Wednesday evening. Here's where we are after the first audit on May 8:
Chamber Day boat income - $30,825
Daytime raffle tickets - $5,485
Merchandise sold at Chamber - $4,470
Chamber Eve ticket sales - $23,915
Less est. food costs - ($15,130)
Evening raffle tickets - $7,170
Merchandise sold at Eve - $2,013
Chamber Challenge - $18,575
GRAND TOTAL - $77,323
Again, thanks to all of you for pitching in. We will do a post-mortem on the event sometime in June. If you'd like to forward any suggestions, thoughts, comments on any aspect of the event, please send them to chamberday@aol.com and we'll take them under advisement.
And remember, Chamber Day/Eve 2004 will be Wednesday, May 5.
Ken Kurtis
Chairman, Chamber Day 2003