Sertoma pays off
Posted 10:51 a.m., December 4, 2008
This is from a Sertoma press release:
The Sertoma Club of Charleston held its annual Charities Awards Banquet at the Altman Athletic Center on the campus of The Citadel, overlooking Johnson Hagood Stadium, the site of the annual Sertoma High School Football Classic, a major Lowcountry fund raising event for local charities for the past 38 years.
Checks representing proceeds from this past fall’s Muhler Sertoma High School Football Classic were presented to twelve local charities and to participating schools in the total amount of approximately $90,000 dollars.
The charitable recipients included Windwood Farm, Eagle Harbor Boys’ Ranch, Happy Days and Special Times, Scottish Rite Centers, Ronald McDonald House, Charleston Area Therapeutic Riding, Special Olympics, and Carolina Hearing Aid Bank.
The Sertoma Club of Charleston has dedicated their annual Football Classic to the mission of “Kids Helping Kids.” The kids “helping” are the high school football players, cheerleaders and band members; the kids “receiving” are those children who are beneficiaries of those charitable organizations whose principal mission is to provide aid to local area children.
Bob Nuttall, Sr., president of Charleston Sertoma Charities, Inc., remarked that a minor miracle had occurred in that the amount donated to local charities this year was slightly more than that the amount donated last year in spite of the fact that the second night of this year’s Classic was cancelled due to Hurricane Hannah which brought torrential rains to the local area and flooded the playing field.
“The reason that the amount raised remained at last year’s level was because of the incredible outpouring of support received by major suppliers, vendors and service providers who voluntarily cut the cost of their services by as much as 50% due to the rainout, even though Sertoma could have been held contractually liable for the full contracted amounts” said Nuttall.
Leading this effort was Lt. Gen. John Rosa and Col. Joe Trez of The Citadel to whom Sertoma pays rent for the use of Johnson Hagood Stadium, CyReel Video Productions, operator of the jumbo screen and video replay equipment, Charleston Police Department (security), and CT Lowndes Insurance who refunded a significant portion of the liability insurance premium already paid by Sertoma.
“Equally important,” observed Michael Herlocker, Chairman of this year’s Muhler Sertoma Football Classic, “was the fact that the major advertisers and sponsors did not cut back the amounts they had committed, which amounts were based on the exposure these advertisers would have received for two nights of football, even though they wound up with only one night.”
These sponsors were, The Muhler Company, AT&T, BiLo, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marines, McDonald’s and Subway Sandwich Shops.
“This outpouring of support, all voluntary, demonstrated that suppliers, vendors and sponsors were all aware of how the Sertoma Football Classic affected local area children’s charities. We are awed and humbled by this support,” said Nuttall.
Since its inception, The Sertoma High School Football Classic has raised over 3.4 million dollars for local area charities.
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