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September 24, 2007
Dennis Gade picked up his mail on July 7th, the last
day for registering for the DuPage Open, and worried about our
numbers. Like so many other competitions, it looked like our
attendance would be down. Then two days later the mail person dumped
hundreds of applications on his doorstep.
Some 535 skaters participated in
this years DuPage Open. One hundred more than last year! This
required more food, more judges, more monitors and more days. We
are so grateful to all the volunteers who did double and triple duty
to make this year’s DuPage Open successful.
The Club asks members to
volunteer at least two hours each year. And in the “there is no
free lunch” tradition, the Board of Directors would like to see even
more than that from our Development Team parents. We are pleased to
report that this year our members and their parents really came
through.
We’re not sure what Lynn
Hoffstadter and Joyce Lendino were doing on the Red and Blue Rinks,
but their monitors showed up early, stayed late and came in extra
days. Every time we went to check on them, things were not only
running smoothly but they all seemed to be having tons of fun. If
you haven’t helped out before and want to join the party, sign up
for monitoring next year.
Kay Larson and Debbie Dennis had
more coaches to feed this year than ever. And none went home hungry.
Deb Roman and Christine Barsanti did a great job of feeding our
judges, some of whom where at the rink from 7am-10pm. One of the
main reasons out-of- town coaches bring their skaters here is our
highly qualified judges. And the judges seem to come for Kay’s eggs
and Debbie’s baked goods. If you haven’t helped out before, they
really could use a helping hand in the kitchen next year.
Christine also did double duty
by helping Lisa organizing our raffle for the World Skating Hall of
Fame and Museum on short notice. The Museum is a great resource and
asset for our skater’s and next year, we really could a Raffle
Chair. Raise your hands!
Because we had a seasoned team
at the registration table, skaters had no trouble checking in. But
the Dennis and team were there from 6 am to late at night. Next
year let’s give them some more help. Dennis Gade could use a few
good parents who can work a four hours shift at the registration
desk.
The runners did a great job,
especially with the ISU events on the Red Rink, which required them
to literally run every skater’s scores to the accounting office in
the Blue Rink. Crystal Calayag is heading off to California for a
nursing job but she’s handed over the big white and red shirts to
Liz Miles who did a great job with the runners on Sunday.
The ijs judging requires more
time and people. Many of our older skaters pitched in to help even
though most of them were also competing at the Open. And we’re not
sure how Rich Jonesi did it, but after being overwhelmed by the
manual ijs system on the Red Rink, Rich and his accounting team got
everything going fast, smooth and accurate.
Dana Calayag and Sheryl Schubert
did a great job of getting all those trophies awarded. On Thursday,
there were hundreds of trophies in the skating rink office. But by
Sunday night, they were all gone. As were hundreds of results, most
of which were handed out by Marie Mastro. It’s fun to be on the
giving side and hand out the awards. Please consider helping Dana
and Sheryl next year.
Mansie and her announcers did a
great job of working with the monitors and referees to keep us on
time. With a larger and longer competition, she could really use
some more help next year. So again, if you haven’t helped before, we
Do need you!
And we wanted you to know that
even thought we were co-chairs of the event we really were a
triumvirate. Jan Serafine organized the travel and accommodations
for the judges, got the trophies and arranged for our vendors. We
think she has enough to do being the chief referee and judging
almost half of the events, so please, if you haven’t helped before
or only gave us a small amount of time, please volunteer to help us
out next year and lighten her load.
To all of you who did drive to
the rink an extra time, stayed late or came early, you can feel
really good about being an important part of what was our most
successful, if not largest, DuPage Open. But wait, the word is out,
and we expect even more participants next year. So please heed our
call and join in the fun and volunteer for the 2008 DuPage Open.
With Gratitude,
Lisa and Mansie
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