2004 Event Recap

In early July 2004, an interview David Busta had done with the Wisconsin State Journal was released and spurred our committee to change beneficiaries from the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation to UW-Madison's Waisman Center. Many of our committee members toured the Waisman Center on a very rainy September 2004 day, thanks to Marsha Seltzer (Director of the Waisman Center), and were immediately drawn to the Waisman Center as our new beneficiary. It was tough to say goodbye to CRPF, but we were all very confident in our decision.

The weather was certainly less than desirable on event day in November 2004 - one of the biggest snow storms Chetek had seen in a while - but we still drew a good turnout and our total money raised was significantly increased by an anonymous donation of $10,000, bringing our total raised in the second year to over $32,000. TV-13 and a local Madison station were both very helpful in spreading the word again. Gary Hansen of Chetek was our biggest auction contributor, where we think he did the majority of his Christmas shopping for the kids and grandkids. We also had three autographed guitars on the auction block this year, which brought in some significant proceeds for the Waisman Center.

Team Cowley won the championship in 2004 - the evening ended with another fun player's pizza banquet at Northwoods.