Yay! I’ve been planning and organizing this benefit dinner at La Caille with the former coaches wife since back in October. I’ve been talking about it since last May…needless to say, I am thrilled to have it as a fabulous memory and no longer an upcoming event!The dinner was a fund raiser for the Utah Men’s Rugby Team. Dave is the head coach this year and he has been working hard to make some beneficial changes to the program. The team is bigger than it has ever been. The practices are organized and planned. The spring travel schedule is littered with unique matches that will really increase the player’s chance to reach their full potential this year. The only thing that was lacking was $$$. Not anymore!

The two days before the event I was up until 4-5am finishing details. We had planned a group toast to the season with stemware as parting gifts. I washed and Dave dried through 90 of these beauties. (My mother-in-law, Melanie, did the last 40-Thanks Melanie!)

Here’s 100 of them!

I was so pleased with how the tables turned out! Mom helped with the awesome centerpieces. Each of the 15 tables had a table number with the name of the position. (In rugby the player’s numbers are determined by the positions they play 1-15.) The names were clipped with little silver swirls onto the lips of the stemware, and there was a Utah Rugby bumper sticker rolled into each glass. The back of each name had a Utah Rugby 2008 Season Pass as a joke. The game’s are free, but we wanted everyone to feel like they had gotten a personal invitation to come out to the games. It was perfect!

The silent auction was great. Items donated included Granato’s gift baskets, Marriott hotel stays, Busath photography, dinner and brunch at La Caille and several other great things.

Dave gave some great remarks in the program. He has put so much time and energy into this program, it was fun to be able to support him in this way.
Grand Total: $15,000 raised for the team!!