Ahoy, Neighbors,

One year it was COVID, the next year it was the weather, another year it was using the smaller room because of a wedding, last year there were no docks. All were obstacles that we managed to work around and still have a successful fundraising event with the regatta.

This year it is the offshore powerboat race scheduled for the same weekend in October. And it is insurmountable. These vessels are so big and so loud that we cannot have the regatta. https://p1offshore.com/St-Petersburg.

The regatta committee was enthusiastically planning an earlier afterparty – no longer a formal banquet – that included games and new ways to raise money and have fun. We are all disappointed.

There were no suitable sailing dates for the rest of 2024, so we look forward to the fall of 2025. We explored non-regatta alternatives to fill the fundraising gap, but none offered sufficient results.

In the meantime, we are still depending on our committed sponsors. We still need community support for all our services.

We continue with plans for our online auction and will go live on Cyber Monday, December 2 with the fun continuing on Giving Tuesday. The auction usually raises about 25% of the total regatta revenue. This additional time will allow us to gather more items and target our promotion for even greater participation.

We are especially grateful to the volunteers who have signed up to support the event. We are still depending on those of you interested securing gift cards, hotel stays, and other fun opportunities around Tampa Bay and beyond. Merrill Stewart will continue to be your contact at mstewart@neighborly.org.

There is opportunity with this necessary pivot. Focusing on the online auction instead of the live event may not bring in as much as the whole regatta would, but it will give us a chance to expand and engage our digital audience. Driving people to our website to bid will also link them to information about everything we offer to vulnerable seniors and maybe even recruiting volunteers!

Onward and upward!

Neighborly Leadership

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