EVENT: Chopper Dropper, Suntree Country Club

Tonight I went to the Chopper Dropper benefit for the Florida Institute of Technology Student Athletics Scholarships. What they do is they sell two thousand raffle tickets, drop that many numbered golf balls from a helicopter, then give awards to those whose golf ball are the closest to the pin. The grand prize being $25,000 cash.

(Did I win?!... you'll just have to read on...)

The event was held outside adjacent to the driving range. There was a big white tent with a couple food stations and a few "beverage" stations among the tables and chairs.


When I got there, I met up with Teresa, and headed outside for the ball drop.

The helicopter circled around the area a couple times then landed on the green to pick up the golf balls.


And while this was happening, the sprinklers turned on (ha!).


That didn't stop them though. And the helicopter then took off and did its deed without any formal announcement to the crowd.


Honestly, I was expecting something more... dramatic. The golf balls were dropped from no more than 35 feet, and the experience came across as somewhat 'flaccid'. When the sprinkler came on while the helicopter was grounded was more entertaining. Oh well... maybe I require a little more 'foreplay' (get it?... it's both reference to sex and a bad golfing pun... ahh, forget it!).

Afterwards, I went into the tent and stood in line for the prime rib, and the setup was just bad -- messy queue, one server, and no meat in reserve. There were servers walking around carrying trays of very tasty-looking appetizers that I was close to jumping out of line for. But I didn't.

wow, take a look at that... um, meat
I prettied up my plate and instead of trying to make friends at one of the tables, I decided to escape the crowd and sit on the ground outside the tent. I knew that I would probably know at most one person, and I figured that I wouldn't be able to relate to most of the people there, so at least I was prepared.


After eating my prime rib (which was only okay) I headed back into the tent and found me a server with some of those hors d'oeuvres, then I just wandered around checking out the auction items and considering calling it an early night.

I walked around outside and saw a couple of ladies at a table on their own, and cat-called the food I was carrying, so I went over to tell them that the trick to getting well-fed here was to not stand in line for food and to just go after the servers.

The ladies were a lot of fun, and I hung out with them for the rest of the night. We saw one of the servers, so I went over to him and said that there were "a couple of hungry ladies who would like to meet you" (server: "the ones that are waving at us?"). We were all having fun, and for the rest of the evening, he gave us first pick. Score!

crab-stuffed mushrooms, beef wellington, and raspberry brie pastries
Yeah, so none of us won any of the Chopper Dropper prizes, but we still had a really good time. We went into the tent to get drinks and to take some pictures.


We even got a photo of us with our awesome server.


Then they invited me to an after-party. I gracefully told them that I was going to be a bum (had to wake up early the next morning for the EotD 10K), and they said it was fine. The offer felt really good.

Anyways, what could've been an early evening for me turned out being a good time. I felt that I handled myself well and in return was lucky to meet those fun people.

:)