BIG THANK YOU - in regards to Daytona

Now that I finally have everything "after Daytona" done and organized I wanted to take a minute to thank all of the people/companies who donated to our raffle and all the individuals who bought tickets to raise money for USARK.

Total cash raised (cashier's check in the mail to them today) was $1681.51. That includes raffle ticket sales, dinner ticket sales and a little extra from a few donors. We also had a nice hardcover book that was auctioned off in Anaheim for $225 and an albino boa that was auctioned in Raleigh (still waiting on word on how much was raised for that one). Pretty darn good for our first year!! And don't forget - Zoo Med is matching us dollar for dollar so with their contribution we raised over $3000!!!! Big hand to everyone involved!!!

I also wanted to put up a list of everyone who donated prizes to acknowledge their generosity. We couldn't have done this without them!!
(I apologize in advance for any misspelled names!)

Kathy Love
Don Soderberg
Chuck Pritzel and Connie Hurley
Lee Abbott
Nanci LeVake
KJ Lodrigue
Hector Mendoza
Tim Cournoyer
Rob and Louise Stevens
Susan Willis
Chris Olson
Jeff Mohr
Danny Wynne
Vinny Lilja
Lori Bosl
Mice Direct
Zoo Med
LLL Reptile
Amazon Reptile Center
Gino Sassani
Hallie Strohmeyer
Gulf Coast Reptiles
Josh Hutto
Marisol Moreno and the Homewood Suites
Ty Parks
Sharon Daley
Marc Vervest
Tom Crutchfield
John Cianci
Lisa Glick
Susan Sentman
Walter Smith
Tracy and Dave Barker
Jeff Risher
Alain Soave
Sandy Quinn
Mike Blickendorfer
John Soto
Rich Hume
Carol Huddleston
Rich and Connie Zuchowski
Lynnea Stadelmann
Dave (davesfiles)
Boa Basement

I am pretty sure I have everyone listed here but if I missed anyone - I sincerely apologize (let me know and I will edit the thread to add you).

I also want to thank Robbie for helping me run the raffle and selling tickets, Nanci for posting the "live from cornsnake dinner thread", Carol for organizing the "pre-Daytona" raffle to raise money for dinner, Kathy for securing many more donations than I could have ever done on my own, Tony for helping me keep my head together the whole evening, Dave for printing up all our beautiful fliers, and Kim, Vinny, Hallie, Lindsey and many others for helping set everything up that night.

A lot of people spent a lot of time hashing out our plan for this year and getting everything organized. This was definately a group effort and I applaud each and every one of you for the commitment and dedication you showed in making sure we were able to pull this off.

If anyone wants to volunteer to help me out for next year - I am more than willing to do this all again!!:cheers:

OH - and one more personal thank you from me to everyone who graced me with gifts for putting this together. You all know who you are and I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. You totally did not need to do that - but I love every one of them!!!!

I can't believe how a group hotel rate blossomed into such a wonderful event! It just kept getting bigger and bigger and more and more extravagent! I can't wait till next year. I know you worked extremely hard to put this all together, Katie, and I can't thank you enough!!!

Ditto, Katie! Your tireless effort really paid off. I had a fantastic time. I actually had more fun at the dinner than the show!
I'd be more than happy to lend a hand for the next show. Thank you again for everything you did to make this such a great event for all of us that attended. You Rock!

Thanks guys. I did work hard, but I certainly did not do it alone. Heck, just all the times I sat on the phone with Nanci, Lori, Carol and Robbie trying to hash out everything...everyone listening to me vent as I stressed out about pulling it off seamlessly.

Ultimately, I wanted it to be a good time for everyone and a chance to raise money for a charity that actually means something to us and I think we did both pretty darn well.

And Lori - I know what you mean. I love the show, still the best show around IMHO, but it is the GTG that I REALLY look forward to every year now. I love being able to spend time with some of my favorite people!!

Don't forget that whole Bechtel Award deal, either. That was quite something to organize and pull off! I hope Rich is proud to be the first recipient and knows how much he has meant to us all. There is no way I would have the small but magnificent collection I do, without him.

Thanks for posting this, Katie.

We also received a donation of a corn snake sponsorship from Kingsnake.com, but it came late and will be auctioned off at Tinley Park. So we will get to count that, too. And we received an albino boa from Boa Basement. It was auctioned off at Raleigh, but I don't know how much it brought. I will find out.

Did your total include the $225 for the ball python book (special, limited edition) by Dave and Traci? It was given to Andrew for Anaheim, and was auctioned there.

So we get to include all of those totals, as well.

Thanks to everyone and a special Thank You to Katie for being the leader in planning this shindig.

It was definitely an amazing event Katie! Thanks for organizing it! Cannot wait for next year. Was such a blast.

It was a great time. The sponsors and donors were generous, and you did a great job, Katie.

kathylove said:

Thanks for posting this, Katie.

We also received a donation of a corn snake sponsorship from Kingsnake.com, but it came late and will be auctioned off at Tinley Park. So we will get to count that, too. And we received an albino boa from Boa Basement. It was auctioned off at Raleigh, but I don't know how much it brought. I will find out.

Did your total include the $225 for the ball python book (special, limited edition) by Dave and Traci? It was given to Andrew for Anaheim, and was auctioned there.

So we get to include all of those totals, as well.

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I did not - forgot about the book and boa....updated the original post.

And you guys....giving me too much credit here. I did not do this alone. I did it with the help of all of you. I love you guys!!

I think someone with access to nice pics should write a small blurb for Reptiles. You see things like that in there all the time. Especially since it was a fundraiser for USARK.

Nanci said:

I think someone with access to nice pics should write a small blurb for Reptiles. You see things like that in there all the time. Especially since it was a fundraiser for USARK.

Click to expand...

Now THAT would be cool! I think even just the group pic of us and maybe one of Rich with his award would be sufficient for pics. Do you have any idea how we would go about submitting something like that? I will have to see if I can dig up one of our issues and see if it has any info in it.

Bill is a columnist there - I will see what I can do in a couple of weeks when I return. There is a 3 month or so lag between submission and "on the newstand" time - takes quite a while.

Aw shucks... All I did was stand on a chair and yell at people. YOU, Katie darling, are the one who needs to be thanked for the whole thing!!! This event was your brain child, and you organized it beautifully!

All I did was get the hotel rooms and dinner together. I forget who it was that suggested the raffle - I want to say it was Kathy.

Special Thanks to Each and Every One who participated, donated, and showed their support for USARK.

LMK if you need anything else for future USARK raffles; If I can helps out I'll be there.
dave

You did a fantastic job organizing this great event! I cannot thank you enough, it gave me a chance to meet so many people I have been dying to greet for such a long time now. Can't wait till next year!

Judging by the letter in my "inbox" today, I would say that Rich does indeed truly appreciate the award and the thought and planning that went into it. Good thing he deserved it, too!

I hadn't looked at that yet, thanks for the heads up! Now I am going to go cry...