DDonovan

April 8th update:

1) The date is set . The event will be August 20th. Facilities and staff are booked adn paid for. I have also paid for bar service up until midnight so we can party a bit up at the mountain.

2) Saunders Subaru is now onboard for sponsorship and will be providing some swag for the WRX crowd.
- On this note if anyone knows of any sponsors that might be interested in providing either cash donation, freebies, raffle items please let me know or contact them yourselves to see if they might be interested in adding in some sponsorship. These can be any business what so ever but I am also targetting the dealerships.

3) Starting location and the Pre-meet have been determined and arranged as have 3 of the 7 checkpoints.

4) If you are at all interested in this event please let me know so I can get you on the list. All I need is first name for you and your passenger, an email address, and your home city.

5) Costs are as follows: Car and Driver = $100.00; Passenger = $50.00; bring money for the raffles as well..., some great prizes.

6) Accomodations on the mountain for $99 - $189 depending on what you want. Please remember that you can attend the event and head back after the awards and still make Victoria or Vancouver. The last ferry out of Nanaimo is 11:45 and some participants did this last year.

7) Prize money is as follows:
High Hand ==> $500.00
Second ==> $300.00
Third ==> $200.00

DDonovan

April 16th Update

Duncan (Discovery) Honda contacted me yesterday and wanted to ensure that they were included in our planning for the 2011 Poker Run. Again they wish to participate as a checkpoint which I think all those that attended last year can agree is a great thing. They put on a BBQ and had the parking lot all setup with flagmen and everything. They were one of the more active sponsors.

This means we now have 4 checkpoints firmed up

* Victoria (Campus) Honda chpt #1
* Duncan (Discovery) Honda chpt #2
* Courtney (Island) Honda chpt #6
* Mt Washington Resort chpt #7

DDonovan

We just signed up an Evo from EvoX, so you won't be alone..., lol

robyn402

iTrader: (3)

bad new boss, i gotta duck out... getting sent to sea from june till oct... boo earns

DDonovan

I'd quit. Jobs where people shoot back at me I don't find appealing. Too bad though. You still into showing up on Thursdays? Do you want to know about any upcoming events? I'm thinking of doing the Pacific Marine Circle again as I hear the highway has been fixed up. It is really a nice 3.5 hour ride. Look it up.

Dave

vince126

iTrader: (5)

see you there...from about 15,000 ft up.

May - Nov for me.

DDonovan

April 23rd Update

We now have all the island Honda Dealerships on board. We currently have 59 cars pre-registered and 97 people. This is truly excellent. With these types of numbers we should be able to send a number of disabled and terminally ill kids to camp. Not to mention giving the loving families of these special kids a break.

I am starting to collect money for the event now. Unfortunately I don't use PayPal. For those of you that are in Canada I have been using Interact Money Transfers which work really well. You don't have to provide any banking information to me at all. All you need is my email address. The entire process is handled by your bank and my bank and the transaction is monitored by Interact. Unfortunately this is not setup in the US and as such I can only accept Interact Money Transfers from Canadian residents at the moment. Those of you wishing to pay that don't want to use Interact Money Transfer can simply snail mail me a cheque.

Here is the link to the Interact Money Transfer site. They have a list of all participating banking institutions on this page. If your bank is listed then you are good to go. All you do is log into your bank, there should be a link to Interact Money Transfer. You pick the account and the amount and hit send. Interact puts a hold on your cash (the selected amount) and sends me an email. I then go to my bank online and accept the transfer..., easy peasy, and no exchange of ANY banking information. There is also a demo on the Interact page:

Interact Money Transfer Site

The costs are as follows:
Car and Driver ==> $100.00
Passengers ==> $50.00

This includes participation, and banquet dinner at Mt Washington Resort.

Other things to think of:
1) Accommodations if you are planning on spending the night on the mountain. I have arranged special pricing for accommodations on the mountain. Rooms can be had for between 99 - 189 Cdn per night depending on the type of accommodations you are looking for. You can also go to the Mt Washington site and rent private accommodations (town homes, condo's) and they are very inexpensive and you could share them as they are all pretty large. Last year I got a condo that sleeps 10 for $75.00/night. Here is the link:
Mt Washington Accomodations Site

• Remember that this event can be done in one day. You don't need to spend the night. If I know which ferry you are arriving on I can arrange for you to leave with a later group. After the event and dinner and prizes are awarded, we do this early enough that you can still catch the Nanaimo Ferry over to the mainland. Last Ferry leaves at 11:45 and Mt Washington is about an hour and a bit from the terminal. A few people did this last year without any problems.

2) Raffle: There will be a raffle of donated items to help raise money. We sell raffle tickets in the amount of $5, $10, and $25 dollar amounts. Each item is priced accordingly. You put your ticket into the buckets of items you are interested in and we draw the winners during the evening. Last year almost everyone went home with something thanks to some great sponsorship.

3) There will be a bar available up until midnight for those that wish to hang around.

I will get the menu posted up as soon as it is confirmed. Thanks again to all those that have donated funds and their time to help me help the kids!


Cars: 59
People: 97

DDonovan

Update - April 29th

Not much new to report except we have now hit 100 particpants...,
Payments have started coming in as well which is great, I really appreciate it.[B]

Cars: 61
People: 100

DDonovan

May 7th Update:

Not much to pass on. Still collecting sponsorship and gathering raffle items for the event. If anyone has any ideas on businesses that might be interested in throwing in some cash donations or raffle items (gift certificates) please contact them or let me know and I can contact them. With this event being open to all Japanese Import sports cars, I am having some issues with finding raffle items for other make/models of car. If anyone can help out, I appreciate it. Doesn't have to be auto related even. We have some restaurants involved and I was thinking of hitting up some meat shops to get some meat to raffle off as well.

It is time to for me to start thinking of collecting payment for this event. I need to have everyone paid up by mid July but I am accepting payments now. I have two options for you. One is Interact Money Transfer, the other would be to snail mail me a cheque. Please contact me for details.

Current participation is at 61 cars and 100 people. That is amazing..., Thanks to everyone.

DDonovan

May 13th Updated:

Again not much new to report. Nanaimo Honda has gotten back to me and they are online with sponsorship again this year. That makes it ALL the Honda dealerships putting forward sponsorship for the event. We also have Saunders Subaru here in Victoria.

I am having some issues contacting or getting a response from Nissan/Infinity and Mazda dealerships for sponsorship. I have contacted all dealerships in Victoria and have not received any response. I will physically be meeting with them soon. If anyone has any inside privileges with any of these dealerships please either pass me a name or approach them yourselves on my behalf. We are looking for any of the following:

1) Cash donation to be used to purchase raffle items to raise money.
2) Raffle items that participants would pay between 5 - 25 dollars (raffle ticket price) for. (Make/Model specific stuff or generic stuff that anyone would bid on).
3) Cash donations directly to the charity (I can get tax receipts for these types of donations as they go directly to the Lions Society that runs Camp Shawnigan.
5) Free participant door prize type stuff (hats, t-shirts, inexpensive swag).

Last point is it is time to start committing to the event by purchasing your event tickets. Prices are $100.00 for car and driver, $50.00 for a passenger. This includes the event as well as a donation for the charity, and a wonderful sit down dinner at Mt Washington. Please if you can start thinking of firing me a cheque or contact me on how to do an Interact Money Wire online. Again for the money transfer you don't have to supply me with ANY banking or personal information.

If you can't make it out please let me know and I will get your name off the list. Feel free to fire us a donation anyway though!

Thanks to all those that have signed up and are planning to attend.

DDonovan

Update for May 20th:

- Time to start sending in your payments to confirm your spot in the Poker Run. Please if you can get your money into me sooner rather than later

- Nanaimo Honda has now confirmed thier involvement again this year as a sponsor and as a checkpoint. That makes the following the list of checkpoints so far:

• Victoria (Campus) Honda chpt #1
• Duncan (Discovery) Honda chpt #3
• Nanaimo Honda chpt #4
• Courtney (Island) Honda chpt #6
• Mt Washington Resort chpt #7

- Napa Auto Parts is sending us a gift pack for the raffle as well, thanks to Bill Heinrich, Owner/Operator of Napa Auto Parts in Westbank BC. - Thanks Bill and see you at the event! Bill is bringing his brother-in-law so that is two more S2000's attending.

That's it for now..., again please if you can, pickup your tickets to the event as soon as possible so I can start to firm up the numbers. If you can't make it out, please fire me a PM or email.

DDonovan

Update May 27th

The Honda Way in Abbotsford has contacted me again this year and they are going to be providing us with some really special raffle items again. They indicated it would be trips someplace but didn't elaborate as they are still working out the details. For those of you that attended last year you will remember that The Honda Way donated two tickets to Las Vegas for two and a trip to Calgary to do the Allen Bergen F1 school (which by the way we have another one of these for this year but it must be used by September).

Other than that money has started to trickle in. Please if you can contact me and pay for your tickets to get it out of the way and to allow me to pick up some nice raffle items for the event. Food and Facilities are now paid for so this is rain or shine.

Again this is a poker run where we will leave Victoria (either as a group or you can go individual or with a separate group). We hit 7 checkpoints on our way to Mt Washington Resort. It is about a 3.5 hour ride. At each checkpoint you will receive a playing card. When you get to the final destination you will have 7 cards to make your best poker hand out of..., I will post up all the poker hands later just in case you not a poker player. Doesn't matter though as the judges will make the highest hand for you so you don't need to know anything about poker. You can purchase mulligan tickets which allow you 3 times to swap a card at a checkpoint. Winners come from the best, second, and third hands. There is also raffles going on during dinner where you can pick up some very cool swag for next to nothing. Raffle tickets are $5, $10, $25 dollar denominations.

This is an overnight event (although it can be done in one day and have you on a Ferry back to the mainland that evening if you want), if you want me to help with accommodations let me know as there is a special rate for this event (89.00 - 189.00 whatever you need).

I need to have all monies in by July 20th, drop dead date would be August 20th unless other arrangements are made (if you are absolutely sure you are attending and can't get the money to me till day of the event then just let me know and I will pay for you and you can pay me back).

DDonovan

Update: June 6th

Not much new to say on the event with one exception.

• If anyone wants to attend the banquet dinner only then you can do that by purchasing a ticket for the Passenger price of $50.00. that includes a $20.00 donation to the charity as well as your meal. That allows you to come and meet with us up at the Mt Washington resort and come to the festivities being held there including a meet (all cars at the challet on the brick patio), banquet dinner, raffle items, and any entertainment to follow, as well as a cruise back with us Sunday.

We would love to have you out and if you can't make the actual "Poker Run" then you would be more than welcome to attend the event at Mt Washington with us.

Money is starting to trickle in so thanks for that!

To purchase your tickets either fire me a PM to get my address and you can mail me a cheque OR here is the link to the Interact Money Transfer site where you can use Interact to send money to me directly. (no banking information is sent to me, only an email confirming the transaction).

DDonovan

June 25th Update

Well payments have started coming in and that is great! I have personally talked to all the Honda dealerships and they will be supplying a cash donation to the Charity as well as some really nice stuff for the participants. There will be something going on at each of the checkpoint with some prizes and give aways. SHC has donated some gift certificates as well as some nice raffle items including HID bulbs, a Momo Shift knob, and some car cleaning supplies. Kal Tire has provided a very nice road side emergency kit, and there is much much more..., then there are the cash prizes for top 3 poker hands.

I have been asked by quite a few people how this all works cuz they don't know how to play poker..., by no means do you need to know how to play poker. I will post up a sheet with all the Poker Hands and their rankings. The way this works is we drive up to Mt Washington either on your own, with a small group, or come on a nice scenic cruz with the larger group. We will stop at 6 pre-determined stops and at each one you will receive a playing card. You keep the card and put it into a supplied envelop. You can swap the card at that checkpoint if you have purchased a mulligan ticket. Some of the checkpoints are putting on a BBQ for us and for their customers (free for us and donations by the customers) and they are turning that money over to us to put into the final donation to Camp Shawnigan. Once we arrive at Mt Washington we will park the cars up on the brick parking lot for a bit of a show. We have the upper chalet reserved for us and that is where the dinner will be as well as all raffle items laid out on a table. You will get the 7th card when you arrive at the Mountain. With all your cards in an envelop you submit them to me. If you know poker hands you can write what you have on the envelop and if you don't we will tell you what your high hand is. Once we have all the hands handed in we will award cash prizes to the top 3 card hands..., there of course will be some nice items that we silent raffle off (you purchase tickets and put them into buckets for the item you want and we draw tickets during or after dinner). Last year pretty much everyone went home with something, plus the feeling of doing some good for handicapped children and their parents and families.

After dinner we have the place till midnight with a bar and bar staff so you can head out to see the mountain, head back to your accommodations, OR hang with us at the Chalet for a while. Next morning it is breakfast or brunch depending on when we all decide to meetup, and a cruz back to Victoria...,

If you need to get back to the mainland for Sunday you can make it as the Duke Point Ferry out of Nanaimo (1.5 hours from the mountain) doesn't leave until 11:45 so you have plenty of time to make it back as some did this last year.

That is it! Last year it was a fantastic time and we managed to send two kids with full supplies to camp. Two kids isn't much I agree but it is two more than could have gone and that is very satisfying and I thank all those that participated last year and those planning to participate this year.

Come on out and have some fun for a good cause. Rooms at the Mountain can be had for $89.00 - $189.00 per night if you book through my contacts and if you go to the Mt Washington web site, under accommodations, you can find even better deals. I got a complete townhouse for $75.00 per night off the accommodations page.

Approx 6 weeks left so please if you haven't signed up please do. Also time to start thinking about payment. I need to have payment by August 1st and can't accept too many more after that as food needs to be ordered and staff arranged as well as for the checkpoints they need to know how much freebie stuff to get for us. If you can't pay right now then at least confirm your attendance or if you can't make it let me know.

Thanks again everyone from me and the kids that will benefit!!!

DDonovan

Good news!
Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort
In Parksville has signed up as a checkpoint. This is excellent as it gives us yet another beautiful spot to visit out our route to Mt Washington. The resort is also stepping up donate one night’s accommodation with 2 Mineral Pool passes for the Grotto Spa, valued at $300. That will be part of the raffle with proceeds going directly to the Kids.

The Honda Way in Abbotsford is kind of keeping quiet on what they are providing this year in terms of raffle items but they have said that they will be providing some excellent items as well Sokha himself may come over and participate in the Poker Run bringing along one of the Club Racers that they have in inventory.

Money is coming in and I have sent out PM's to everyone that expressed interest in the event as it is time to start firming up the numbers. There is little over 6 weeks left so it is time to start purchasing your tickets. Please contact me about payment as soon as you can. I have committed to 60 dinners from Mt Washington so I am anxious to see how close we are to that currently.