Hello!
Last night's event was a great success! We had approximately 40 people celebrating our club's goal of owning our own fields and clubhouse. We had two different raffles, with upwards of 30 prizes awarded. We had lots of delicious food and drinks. And we had a substantial increase in our Vision Fund coffers!
Before I get into the details about the money raised, I'd like to give a few thanks to those individuals who made the event such a success.
Thanks to Rick and Cindy LaValla who purchased and prepared food and drinks, invited us all into their home and hosted the great event.
Thanks to Pat LaValla who pulled together one of the raffles and worked extremely hard during the event to help make sure everyone got checked in.
Thanks to Trevor Anderson for selling raffle tickets throughout the evening.
Thanks to Della Durr for her donation of a beautiful Holiday Wreath that was raffled off.
Thanks to Dan Smith for pulling together many of the materials on display during the event, the other raffle, and working throughout the event to collect donations.
And many thanks to all those who attended, donated and otherwise supported our cause. Without all of you, all our work would have been for naught!
And now for the exciting news.
With donations and raffle sales combined, we earned $2,495.00! This is a great outcome - more than any Vision Fund event we've hosted so far, and doubling the total amount of money we've earned this year!
However... As I hinted in some of my earlier emails, we had a bit of a surprise in store. In fact, it was the driving focus behind the event.
Rick LaValla has been working, for the last few years, on securing a large donation for the club. The donation comes from the trust account of a very close friend of his who passed away in 2008. Frank Parker became of big fan of rugby through his relationship with the LaVallas, and traveled the world attending rugby events. I can never give his story true justice, you'll need to corner Rick for that. However, Frank requested that a portion of his estate be donated to rugby. As such, Rick presented Budd Bay Rugby Football Club with a check from Frank's trust for the Vision Fund. The check was for $180,000.00!
This brings our evening's totals to $182,495.00, obviously a rather significant boost to our Vision Fund. I am very excited about what this means for the future of our club. Our own fields are suddenly within reach! Dan Smith, the Chair of our Vision Committee, will be reconvening the committee in January with renewed vigor and purpose as we now have the funds to start talking about making a purchase. If you are interested in being a part of that process, please let us know, so we can keep you informed about the time and place of the upcoming meetings.
I hope this news brings some exciting cheer to your holiday festivities! I know that it certainly brings a feeling of renewed vigor to our Vision as we move into the new year, and I am looking forward to seeing how we are able to grow in 2012.
Please have a safe and wonderful week!
-Kyle
