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"WOW! I just want to say this, I have been doing fundraisers for over 25 years, I am not surprised of the success only because when you prepare and put as much effort as the organizers did with Grapes & Apes it just had to be great, I expected nothing less.
What truly surprised me and what impressed me the most was the members of Naples Rotary, the volunteers, they were all there, they were all working, some I had never seen involved before, just the lunch guys, but there they were each and every one, rolling tables, picking up chairs, moving people through, selling auction items and raffle tickets, pouring wine and so much more of what it takes to make an event like this a success.
Ladies and Gentlemen I am very happy to stand next to you as a Naples Rotarian."
- Sonny Grech
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Greetings!
 Take overachievers like Jay Crandall, Rich Kirschner and Jerry Wynn and give them a goal, then get out of their way and let them do what they do! A year ago, putting on Grapes & Apes was a great idea, but that is all it was, an idea. Many meetings took place to plan "the architecture" of the event so a clear vision could be established and real work could begin. The original overachievers accomplished a lot but they also had a lot of help carrying out their vision to make Grapes & Apes a reality.
Grapes & Apes 2011 was solidly profitable. Every dollar we earned cost us fifty cents. It is our hope that we can drastically increase our income and in 2012, every dollar earned will only cost about 25 cents. I love to set goals and strive not only to achieve them but to outdo them as well. Four more overachievers are working in four very important areas to help take us to the next level.
Grapes & Apes consists of four major income producing endeavors that are meant in combination to create astounding returns for our effort and investment to raise money for The Rotary Club of Naples' projects and programs. These four income producers are:
1) Sponsorships led by Randy Kurtz, 2) Raffle Ticket Sales led by Cal Pratt, 3) Event Ticket Sales led by Jim Scartz and 4) Auction Items led by Mia Delk. Each of these areas are in extremely capable hands working to succeed and exceed goals. But even overachievers need a lot of help to carry out the vision and make it a reality. We all have jobs to do for Grapes & Apes but consider what you can do to help ensure the four money makers exceed their goals by offering them your help in any way you can. That might mean introducing someone to the CEO at a company, requesting an auction item, selling event and raffle tickets and bringing someone from a local company to the club to see who we are as an organization. All of us working together is what makes this happen.
Sincerely,
Rich Ahrens
Gorilla-at-Large
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Raffle Committee
We are extremely excited that Cal Pratt has agreed to chair our Safari Raffle ticket sales. Cal is a long time member of the club and has just the right combination of jovial sales ability and friendly pressure to urge all members to do their part to help achieve the sales goal of 750 tickets. Cal knows our membership as well as anyone and with a smile can propel folks forward to sell.
We will be working with AAA Travel and Tauck Tours again this year. Discussions have taken place in an effort to get a generous donation in exchange for a significant amount of promotion in the Naples community. Tauck Tour has graciously agreed to give us two places on the 2012 tour to Africa at no charge! This puts us about $15,000 ahead right from the beginning. The raffle has the potential to produce nearly $75,000 in income so we hope to be much more successful with ticket sales this winter and in the weeks leading up to Grapes & Apes.
The best salesperson is one who is well educated about the product they sell. Tauck Tour will be presenting a program to the club in January so everyone can understand what a Tauck Tour really is and why the $100 raffle ticket winner receives something so amazing! We also hope our 2011 winners might be able to speak briefly about their own experience to really build some excitement. We'll keep you informed! |
| 2012 Tickets Sold!
Our early ticketing opportunity officially closed on June 15th. No, we did not sell 2,012 of them but we did sell over 300 tickets representing more than 20% of the total we will be offering for sale! Ron Gustason remarked, "This past year,we didn't have this many tickets sold on March 1st."
This effort puts over $10,000 in our account more than 9 months ahead of time. Jim Scartz is a powerhouse ticket seller and with Jim Connell backing him up this year, they are sure to achieve another sell out!
The neat thing we saw in our early ticketing was excitement about getting tickets now not only to save money but also to ensure not missing "The Party of the Year in Naples." We clearly struck a chord with our patrons and are affirmed by their enthusiastic response to Grapes & Apes.
Although the big discount is now over, tickets can be bought anytime on www.naplesewine.org at the published price of $100 per person. Another early purchase promotion will be held in the fall at $75 per person. JIm and Jim will also be working on kiosk locations and displays for the crucial couple of months ahead of the event where tickets will be sold in various locations around Naples.
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Progress Report
President-elect Frank Fontana has worked very hard to organize our program speakers and already has most of them in place for the coming Rotary year. In September, we already have two dates that will highlight Grapes & Apes at our club meetings. On September 7, the entire meeting will be dedicated to Grapes & Apes 2012. At this meeting we will tell our members about the specifics of the coming event, introduce committee chairs and get everyone excited to start working hard for the coming six months of preparation. Niki Shimko made a great slide show set to music and Jason will play it to get everybody's heads and hearts back in the game. The following week on September 14, Royal Palm Chocolates will be the presenting speaker to the club about the art of chocolate making. Royal Palm will be at Grapes & Apes in March so we want our members to be familiar with the company and their delicious products!
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