Once again, our annual Tennis Ball Raffle fundraiser at Continental Boarding was greeted with spectacular Fall weather and the event was huge fun and a great success! We just love this event. It’s casual, all dogs are welcome (not just Goldens), there’s food and drinks, play time in the dog park, meeting new people and volunteers and then concluding with a Golden fetching the 3 winning numbered tennis balls from a sea of chartreuse colored balls (though this often doesn’t always work as smoothly as planned. See video below).
Our honorary fetcher this year was Paisley. Paisley was surrendered to GRRCC when she was 6 months old, due to having juvenile cataracts. She had the cataract in her left eye removed and the vet didn’t believe that the right eye with a cataract could be helped. Surgery was successful as she could see much better right away! A few weeks later, however, she suddenly lost her vision completely as both of her retinas had detached. GRRCC was able to get her into one of the few surgeons in the nation, located in Virginia Beach, that perform retina reattachment surgery on animals. Paisley underwent double retina reattachment and had the cataract in her right eye removed as well. Surgery was a success, and thanks to her foster, and now forever home Mom, Lynnea Pulver and many skilled doctors, Paisley was able to do the fetching for our 2018 Tennis Ball Raffle!
This year’s lucky winners were:
- 1st Place: Arlene Conger ($1000)
- 2nd Place: Rick Gross ($500)
- 3rd Place: Lisa Haas ($250). Lisa generously forfeited her winnings on the spot and we were thrilled to let her!
FINANCIAL SUMMARY: The event took in a total of $5209 in funds from ticket sales ($3800), merchandise ($1179) and lunches ($230). Total profit to the club was $3709, which represents what’s left after 1st and 2nd place prizes are paid.
IN ADDITION: Volunteer, and former Board member, Shari Martin brought in a total of $260 in sales on her bookmarks/jewelry creations, of which her employer will be matching $190, for an additional $450 of funds raised!
AN UNEXPECTED DONATION was received that touched the hearts of us all. A sweet little girl named Emma Smallwood made her Momma (Sue) drive her all the way from Huntersville to Continental Boarding, so she could hand us a ziplock bag filled with $175 she earned from a lemonade stand that she, and her good friend Abby, setup over the summer. The funds were donated in memory of Abby’s dog, Stella. Thank you Emma, Abby, Sue and Stella, for having such a wonderful and loving family!!
A VERY SPECIAL “THANKS” must go to the following two people, and their businesses. Without their generosity and kindness, this event could not have been so successful. (1) To Dave Grindstaff, thank you once again, for donating the use and space of your impeccably run boarding facility. Continental Boarding is such a wonderful place to, not only have this event, but to board a dog whenever it’s needed. If anyone needs boarding, this is the place to go. Please visit their website, or call them, 704-504-0025. (2) To John “JJ” Jackson, Managing Partner of Jocks and Jills Sports Grille, located at 4109 S Stream Blvd., across from the old Colosseum off Tyvola Rd. Thank you for donating all of the food and for taking the time out of your day, as well as your wife and son, for being at the event to serve up the wonderful lunch yourselves! It was so delicious!
To our Friends of GRRCC, please use both of these wonderful, and charitable, businesses and support them for supporting GRRCC!!
Thanks also to the dedicated Volunteers that helped make this event a success! We so do appreciate all of your hard work!
- Dru Meier: Event coordinator
- Bethany, Marcus, Sam and Ava Gooch (Team Gooch): For lugging stuff to and from storage, set up/tear down, merchandise sales, MC and everything the four of you did throughout the day!
- Jim and Carol Adler: Sorting and transporting all of the tennis balls.
- Kathy Girone: Merchandise sales and tickets sales
- Rick Gross: Lunch coordinator.
- Shari Martin: Creator of repurposed jewelry sold at the event. Her sales, and employer matching dollars, were donated to GRRCC.
- Lynnea Pulver: thank you for sharing Paisley’s journey with everyone. She’s a shining example of why we all love, and volunteer with, GRRCC.
- Gina LaPoint: Photography and video
- Randy Miner: volunteer coordinator and merchandise designer
Leave a Reply