By The Numbers—Powerboating For A Cure Another Smashing Success
While numbers alone rarely if ever tell the entire story of a given event, they’re good for getting a basic overall handle on one. And by the numbers, last weekend’s ninth annual Powerboating For A Cure Poker Run in Virginia organized by the Mid-Atlantic Powerboat Association was impressive.
An array of waterways and conditions greet participants in last weekend’s epic Powerboating For A Cure Poker Run. Photos courtesy/copyright Chuck Guthrie and John Ainslie.
Consider this:
•The 75-boat, 140-mile course event, which attracted 350 participants occupying approximately 250 rooms at the Sheraton Waterside host hotel, sold out in three days.
•Through registration, a silent auction, an 50/50 drawing, sponsorships and donations, Powerboating For A Cure raised $40,400 for the nonprofit Susan G. Komen breast cancer awareness and research organization. To date, the event has raised $340,000 for the outfit.
• Through same charitable instruments, Powerboating For A Cure raised $5,000 for the Associated General Contractors of Virginia Scholarship Fund for a total of $45,000 raised to date.
• Participants Michael Nix, Jim Holthoff and Brad Crowder—the first- second- and third-place poker hand holders—donated half of their winnings to the Susan G. Komen organization. Official event photographer Chuck Guthrie won the 50/50 drawing and also donated his winnings to the charities.
•Captains’ benefits included a 50-cent-per-gallon discount on regular, premium and diesel fuel at Long Bay Point Marina during the event and a 10-cents-per-gallon discount on fuel and a 10-percent discount on food at Rudee’s On The Inlet for the rest of the summer.
Check out the slideshow above for more images from the 2017 Powerboating For A Cure Poker Run.
Beyond those compelling numbers numbers, the course took participants from the Waterside Marina—the host venue—to the calm Elizabeth and James Rivers, the light chop of the Chesapeake Bay and the two- to three-footers of the Atlantic Ocean. Participants came from the Eastern Seaboard and througout the Southeast. One couple Evelyn and Mario Garrand even came from Quebec, Canada, which earned the event’s “Longest Tow”designation.
“One of our goals is to make each year a better event for the participants,” said Bob Veith, the chairman of the event. “We raise a lot of money for the charities, but we also want the participants feeling like we did everything first-class for them and that Powerboating For A Cure is an event they certainly want to plan on attending next year. We emphasize that in the Steering Committee—if it weren’t for the participants, we wouldn’t have an event.
“The addition to the event of Waterside District reopening was huge—we had the Friday brunch there at Blue Moon Restaurant,” he continued. “They brought in the Yacht Rock Band, which played on Friday Night on the stage next to the docks, and they provided each attendee a wrist band which allowed them to visit any establishment in Waterside District and have three- to five-dollar adult beverages. From the meal hosts to the hotel to the water and the weather, it could not have been a more perfect event.”
and then