In 1989, Chamber Day was created as a way of providing more secure funding for our Chamber. And since that time, we've come back to you annually to ask you to support your Chamber. We hope you'll never need it, but if you do, you'll be glad it's there.

A key component of our fund-raising efforts, especially the past few years, has been the Chamber Challenge. We “challenge” you to give a straight donation to our Chamber, and we hope you will then turn around and challenge your friends and dive buddies to match your generosity. And I am amazed, delighted, and (quite frankly) pleasantly surprised to tell you that we’ve already passed $5,000!!!

We begin with a long-time stalwart supporter of our Chamber (and someone who always likes to be first out of the gate leading the charge to support our Chamber), Pacific Wilderness, at the $1,000 level. Pacific Wilderness realizes that, as a dive shop, our Chamber might be needed some day to help out one of their customers and they want to make sure we're available to do that. They are also joined at the same level by Dr. Ilan Tamir, a longtime diver (along with his son Ben). Although Ilan no longer dives SoCal, he understands the need for our Chamber and is willing to support those efforts.

We also have also a Silver-level donor ($500) in the persona of Chamber Director Karl Huggins. Karl’s donation - in memory of his mentor, Lee Somers - is a good reminder that you can do a donation in someone’s memory or honor. We’ll list their name as well as yours.

Joining Karl at the Silver level is Don Lake, also a regular (and always early) supporter of the Chamber Challenge. Jeanne Sleeper has made a Silver-level donation in honor of all of the Aquarium of the Pacific staff taking care of the animals during the pandemic. (And a reminder that you can recognize/honor living people as well as those no longer with us with your donation.) And rounding out our $500 donors in this early update are James Collins, new to the Challenge, and Larry Thompson a repeat contributor from last year.

So we’re off to a good start (we have a number of $100 donations as well) but we’ve got almost nine weeks to go. Last year was a record-setting year for the Challenge and hopefully we can set another record this year. We’re gearing up for March Madness, so about how about a little Chamber Challenge madness to match? Who's next? Here’s the direct link to get your name on our list: https://usc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp3rzL7cVCFp1rM .

CHAMBER CHALLENGE 2021 - $5,050 total (Updated 3/6/2021 @ 3PM - first update)
New donors are in bold type and marked with an asterisk.

Gold ($1,000-4,999)
* Pacific Wilderness
* Dr. Ilan Tamir

Silver ($500-999)
* In memory of Lee Somers, PhD (Karl Huggins)
* Don Lake
* In honor of AOP Husbandry & Dive staff (Jeanne Sleeper)
* James Collins
* Larry Thompson

Bronze ($100-499)
* In memory of Josh Bouma (DJ Mansfield)
* Roger Carlson
* Sharon DePriester
* In honor of Malyssa Perkins (Rob Peyton)
* Honoring Eileen Kennedy, COVID fighter (Frank Horowitz)

Other (less than $100)
* Debbie Rubin
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Ken Kurtis - Chairman
Chamber Day/Eve 2021
P.O. Box 634
Beverly Hills, CA 90213
(310)652-4990

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