Normally we look to do these updates about once a week. Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d need to do our next one three days after our last one but here we are. And what a remarkable three days it’s been.

We’re very happy to tell you that we’ve already hit $16,000 in this year’s Chamber Challenge. These funds are critically important to the Chamber because 100% of the money donated goes to the Chamber since we don’t need to pay for a t-shirt, a dinner, or other goodies out of the monies collected. And to me personally, the donations to the Chamber Challenge are always a good way measure how the diving community feels about our Chamber since the only “reward” the donor gets back is the knowledge that they’ve help keep our Chamber on sound financial ground. So here are our latest benefactors.

We start out with Alberto Montovani and DiveNav, Inc. (they make very clever 3-D underwater maps) with a $1000 Gold-level donation.

Next we have our $500 Silver-level donors who include Scuba Schools of America in Montclair (Rusty Berry is also a member of the Chamber Day steering committee), Jeanne Sleeper (who is also spear-heading a fund-raising campaign for the Aquarium of the pacific), and the Los Angeles Underwater Photographic Society (not only producing beautiful images but also making a beautiful donation),

We got another $500 donation but it was an unusual one as it came from our friends at The Deep (RVM & Associates) who had already given $2000. But when they saw there was a $2500 donation given at the same time as theirs, they upped their previous donation by $500 for a total of $2500. (And if anyone else wants to play one-upsmanship, we’re happy to have our Chamber benefit from that.)

We also added some Bronze-level $100 donors, including Fran & George Ollweiler (of Dover, DE) who have the distinction of being the contribution that brought us to $16,000 for the second year in a row. (Timing is everything.)

And even though we’re off to a rousing start and well ahead of last year’s pace, our fear is that there will be temptation to rest of our laurels. There are many of you who have donated to the Challenge in the past who we haven’t heard from yet. Now’s as good a time as any. So . . . who’s next??? Who will push us past $17,000?????

CHAMBER CHALLENGE 2008 - $16,000 total (Updated 3/19/08 @ 4PM - last updated 3/16)
(New donors are marked with an asterisk.)

Gold ($1,000 and up)
* DiveNav, Inc.
Mike Emmerman, Pat Stockhausen, & TJ
The Deep (RVM & Associates)
Pacific Wilderness
Sport Chalet
DiveVets
Laurie Kasper & Ken Kurtis

Silver ($500-999)
* Scuba Schools of America
* Jeanne Sleeper
* Los Angeles Underwater Photographic Society
Ocean Adventures
Karl Huggins

Bronze ($100-499)
* Fran & George Ollweiler
* Michael Swinney
* Claudette Dorsey
* Walter Watson
www.indianvalleyscuba.com
Jerry Nickelsburg
Susy Horowitz
Diver.net
Sea Divers Dive Club
Old Broads Dive Club
Barnacle Busters Scuba Club
Chris Rybak & Conoco-Phillips (matching grant)
California Wreck Divers
Derek & Debbie Karimoto
James Haw
Kevin Lee
Gorman Dive Adventures & Travel

Ken Kurtis
Chairman, Chamber Day/Eve 2008
www.chamberday.org
310/652-4990