By Carl A Cyrowski
LOFA President
The breakfast/brunch fundraiser at the Lake Orion Boat Club this past Sunday was a tremendous success – we served almost 500 meals. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped, it went like clock work and the weather was very cooperative.
It was a beautiful day and Neal and Lois Porter brought 23 people from their church after their services to eat via our shuttles, and we gave them a tour of the lake after they finished their breakfast, great group and PR for Lake Orion. This is turning into one of our best community events and shows people that Lake Orion is truly ‘Where living is a vacation?.
I would like to start out by thanking the Lake Orion Boat Club for the use of their facility at a time of the year when they could be using it for their own fund raising event, which is by the way, how they pay for their club maintenance. We do give them some money for ‘wear and tear? of the Club and to help replenish the supplies we use, however.
In addition to the use of the club, the LOBC donates money back to LOFA, as well as purchases many raffle tickets in the club name. Several of the members were a part of the volunteer group for this event and also purchase and sell raffle tickets to support the fireworks. All in all, they are one of the biggest donors and make this great event possible. Thank you LOBC.
Secondly, I would like to thank Nick Christy of Christi’s Bar and Grill who uses his restaurant at no charge to LOFA to collect food donations from his suppliers and gathers a crew at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday to cook the food and ship it over to the island in hotboxes before our start time at 9 a.m. Thanks Nick, every thing was great.
Third, I would like to thank Dave Welch of the Hollywood markets who not only supplied most of the donated food, but also has been raising money by selling hotdogs outside his store every weekend since Memorial day and selling tons of tickets. Dave was also a volunteer cook at Christi’s! Thanks Dave.
The Sage Brush Cantina cooked three varieties of Mexican eggs and supplied the salsa and chips at the breakfast. Thanks Dia! CJ’s and the Sand Bar supplied all the bagged eggs. Thanks Carl and Joanie! The Hamlin Pub supplied the Biscuits and gravy. Thanks Monica and Jim T. Harvest time supplied all the fruit. Thanks Paul! Applebee’s Bar and Grill supplied the delicious brownies. Thanks Cheryl! Buffalo Wild Wings supplied the Coffee, cups and napkins. Thanks Roberto and Cheryl! Culver’s supplied the custard, place mats and napkins. Thanks to Joe Z. who also helped serve the dessert! Costco supplied the Pancake mix. Thanks to the Market Manager, Sherri!
We also need to thank Hubert Distributing (Budweiser) for printing all of our Flyers and Posters at no cost, which saved the committee tons of money and time. Thanks Mark Helzer! Also, all the donation envelopes as well as the mail out envelopes were supplied, printed and stuffed by M&B Printing in L.O. Thanks Rob!
Last, but not least, I need to thank Waste Management for donating the ‘totters? and pickup services to clean up our mess after the event. Thanks, Kathleen!
I hope I haven’t missed anybody, but if I did I apologize!
I would expect that we will all patronize these businesses who go out of their way to support our Independence Day fireworks display. We don’t solicit government or large donations from businesses because we don’t want our display to be controlled by or be part of some budget cut in the future. As you are aware, many communities have cancelled their displays recently because of budget shortfalls. Also, politicians like to take credit for these displays when in truth it is your tax dollars that they are using, not theirs. This is truly a show for the people, paid for by the people- not tax dollars.
The volunteers who worked at this event are too numerous to mention here, but know that they were part of a great community event and look forward to the show June 30, that their efforts helped make possible.
Also huge thanks to all the individuals who donated money and bought raffle tickets! Hope you enjoyed the show.