Category Archives: Fund Raiser

Merry Christmas – Make a Child Happy

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Happy Holidays! We’ve been busy, but not that busy, which is a way of saying I’m not sure why we didn’t get anything posted after our November Gobble-Gobble trip. We did get the pictures posted out there on Facebook, including a turkey suit, a turkey tiara, and a turkey hat. We did our mini fund raiser on the bus for Oma’s Heart, and I’m please to say that we raised $115.00 for them to help needy Lee County families to have a better Christmas.

Our Merry Christmas – Make a Child Happy trip this week was great! Then again, the sound system on the bus wasn’t working quite right. Other than that the trip was great, and they’re working on getting that issue taken care of. We raised $122.50 for Oma’s Heart, and it got even better when half of the 50-50 winnings were donated back to boost that to $167.50!

Nearly everyone on the November trip donated toys to the Calder Toy Drive. Some brought their own, but most took advantage of Debbie’s good deals. You might have noticed several of our toys on display behind the Player’s Club Desk on the day of our November trip. Not too surprising as the toy drive had just begun. But on our December trip we saw that many of our November donations were still being prominently displayed – thanks to Debbie’s nose for great clearance deals and your generosity some kids will be getting a really nice present this year! And we added even more great toys to the cause on our trip this week.

BTW, when you take a look at the November pictures in Facebook you might wonder where the December pictures are. They’re still in the camera. They’re just about to the top of my to-do list so they should be out there soon. That’s assuming that Debbie was able to keep the camera on auto. It got bumped to another setting in November, so some of the pictures were too fuzzy (including all the birthday pictures). She put a piece of tape on the auto switch this time, but when she dropped the camera the batteries popped out. Oh well, we never claimed to be professional photographers…

Can you keep a secret? We’ve had several winners in the Magic Carpet Hot Seat game, and before that we had several winners in the Roundup Slot Tournament. It’s not on the Calder website yet, but we hear that the Hot Seat game is being retired for now and they will be adding BINGO sessions on Wednesday afternoons. BINGO cards are free, you get them for points earned that day. As you may know, we plan our personal trips to Calder around the Wednesday & Friday evening BINGO sessions. All of us Nelsons enjoy the evening BINGO sessions, and two out of three of us have won several times (I think Debbie won once or twice…). Anyways, we’re really looking forward to the Wednesday afternoon BINGO sessions!

Summer Fun Special Olympics of Lee County Fundraiser

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If you missed out on yesterday’s Special Olympics Fundraiser then you really missed the bus! We had a great time with lots of great gifts from some great sponsors. Everybody on the bus won something, and the grand prize was a pair of tickets to the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater. Many thanks to all of our sponsors.

I just wrote a check for $1042 to Special Olympics of Florida – Lee County. Thanks to our sponsors, but also thanks to everyone who came on the trip – without your generosity we wouldn’t have had a fundraiser.

This is a quick turnaround for us this time as our “regular” trip is next Wednesday (8/23). We’re trying something new on that trip – BJ Odom will be doing a set from his magic & comedy act on the way to the casino. That’s a first for us, and also the first time that BJ will be doing his act on a moving bus. Hopefully all will go well, but if we hit a bump and the magic doesn’t go quite right it will most likely add to the comedy side of the show!

Back to the Special Olympics trip, thanks again to all of our sponsors. And kudos to Debbie for getting out there and lining them all up.

Grand Prize: Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre Tickets
All About Bagels
Anthony’s on the Boulevard
Applebee’s
Boston Market
Café You
Calder Casino
Chick-fil-A
Dairy Queen
Domino’s Pizza
Downtowner Car Wash
Duffy’s Sports Grill
Englund’s Subs
Fin’s
First Round Draft
Five Guys
Golden Corral
Il Primo Pizza & Wings
Lenny’s Grill & Subs
Mangia Bene
Maria’s Italian Restaurant
Marquee Cinemas, Coralwood 10
Mel’s Diner
The Moorings
Nathan’s Famous
Office Depot / OfficeMax
Outback Steakhouse
Paradise Pizza
Pizza Hut
Super Cuts
Taco Bell
Teriyaki Madness
Thirsty’s Restaurant

Christmas in July

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We had another great trip to Calder Casino yesterday, our Christmas in July trip. Several people were decked out in their Christmas finest, at least the July-in-Florida version of their Christmas finest. Lots of fun and some great prizes, including an electric fireplace as the grand prize and two room heaters as the baby grand prizes – I know, it’s July, but the fireplace looks great year round and the heaters will probably come in handy this winter.

This was our fourth monthly trip, and everything is starting to run pretty smoothly. I guess that means that it’s time to start changing things up a bit. We’ve got two new games to try out on our upcoming August trips, and we’re thinking about trying something different with the drawings too.

Speaking of different, we’ve got two trips in August. We have a Special Olympics Fund Raising trip on Wednesday August 16, and our “regular” trip a week later on Wednesday August 23. The Special Olympics trip costs a bit more, $50 rather than our usual $36. We think you’ll find that it’s well worth the additional money. We’ve got more bigger & better prizes for the bus, local businesses are really coming through. Here’s our current list of sponsors: All About Bagels, Anthony’s on the Boulevard, Boston Market, Café You, Domino’s Pizza. Downtowner Car Wash, Englund’s Subs, Fin’s, First Round Draft, Golden Corral, Il Primo Pizza & Wings, Lenny’s Grill & Subs, Mangia Bene, Maria’s Italian Restaurant, Mel’s Diner, The Moorings, Nathan’s Famous, Pizza Hut, Super Cuts, Taco Bell, and Teriyaki Madness. And as we say on our fliers, it’s not too late to become a sponsor! As for what’s really important, all of the extra ticket price plus more goes to Special Olympics. We’ll also be selling additional BINGO cards for $1, and the 50-50 will of course be for Special Olympics – we’re hoping to raise $1000 for a great cause.

Speaking of 50-50’s and great causes, yesterday’s 50-50 was for Special Olympics, as was the June trip. That’s another $293 that we’ll be presenting on the Special Olympics trip, and that’s in addition to the money we’ll be raising that day!