The Boothbay Charities Classic committee recently completed its 23rd year of fundraising to benefit Special Olympics of Maine. The annual event was held on September 26, 27 and 28.

The Boothbay Charities golf tournament was another year of great success. Without the support of many volunteers, 164 golfers, 33 celebrities, tee, hole and cart sponsors, those who sent money for a donation, businesses that donated items for our auction and the B&B'S and hotels that graciously donated rooms for three nights as well as our major sponsors, we wouldn’t have been able to present a check to Special Olympics of Maine this year in the amount of $37,000 after expenses.

The committee would like to thank the following Bronze Sponsors: Leroy’s Seafood, who sponsored The Putt For Cash This Year for $10,000, Hancock Lumber, Knickerbocker Group, Woodard & Associates, Oberuch Electric, Pine State, Carl R. Griffin, Midcoast Payroll & Accounting, Castle Brands (Leroyer), MS Walker (SVEDKA Vodka), McSeagull’s, Frederick Wildman & Sons-Importers and Wine Merchants.

Silver Sponsors: The First, N.A., Wiscasset Ford, Enterprise, Pepsi (prizes and product) and Federal Distributors (prizes), Newcastle Chrysler Dodge, Marcus Hutchins, Laurie an Josh Taylor, Sugarloaf; The Bag and Shipyard.

Gold Sponsors: The Gordon Foundation-Myrna Snider, Ocean Spray Juice, Ocean Point Inn.

Platinum Sponsor: Northcenter Foods (donates the food and product for the three-day event), Ed and Marie Bosarge and family, Dennis Paper Products, and Bill Shea and family.

The committee wishes to also thank: Downeast Coffee, Atlantic Edge, Mill Cove Lobster, and Pinkham’s Seafood for donations to the Lobster Bake; the following hotels, motels and B&B’s for donating rooms for our celebrities for their stay – Rocktide Inn, Laurie and Josh Taylor Condo, Cap’s Fish’s Motel, Tugboat Inn, Fisherman’s Wharf, Cap’n Sawyer’s, Flagship, Jack Cogswell at Carousel Marina, Sprucewold Lodge, Topside Inn, Seagate Motel, Brown Bros. Ocean Point Inn, Admiral Quarters and Bayside B & B; The Gallery Catering and Events (Steve and Laura Francis) for hosting another great year at their location of fun and food for the meet and greet. Thanks to The Boothbay Railway Museum for a place to have the lobster bake under the big tent as well as the use of their facilities; Special Olympics, Mark and Laurie Bailey, Leon Blackman for putting on the lobster bake and Craig Andrews and bartenders for catering the bar; Eddie Tibbetts at Atlantic Edge for your help with the lobsters for the bake; the Boothbay Register for all of the publicity that they gave to us as we geared up for the big event, as well as the whole weekend of the event; Channel 7 for being there; Don Carrigan (Channel 6); Jeff Peterson (Channel 13) and Steve Minich (Channel 8).

Thank you to all of the many businesses in town that graciously donated items for baskets that were put together for the auction. They were a great hit.

Special thanks: to Hannaford for donating the corn and potatoes and cole slaw for the delicious bake; Ocean Point Inn for donating the butter for the bake as well as many other items; Dennis Paper for donating all of the paper products for the bake as well; Craig Andrews for donating the blueberry cake and Downeast Coffee for the coffee; Oberuch Electric and his crew for providing the lighting for us for the auction and bake; Robbie Ham for setting up our speaker system; the Knights of Pythias and volunteers for their help in pulling off another fabulous Lobster Bake that served 240 people;

The committee wishes to thank all of the celebrities that come every year to support this great cause. Some of the new ones this year included Steve Nelson, Marv Hubbard, George Byrd, Gerin Veris, Ron Hall, Joe Clark, Bob Allieta and Skip Lockwood. We also welcomed back Ted Hendricks, Charlie Johnson, Ken Hodge, Gino Cappelletti, Garo Yepremian, Tom Mack, Bill Lee, Otis Sistruck, Peter Ladd, David O’Brian, Dan Sullivan, Stump Merrill, Dot Petty, Rick Volk, Larry Eisenhaur, Jeff Peterson and Steve Minich. We would also like to thank those of you who offered to pick up and take back celebrities to and from the Portland Jetport. It was much appreciated by the celebrities and the committee.

Thanks to: J. Edward Knight for sponsoring the Hole in One prizes; Paul Coulombe and the Boothbay Harbor Country Club and staff for their support; Rick and Krystal Blackman-Naverette for the save the date magnets for the goodie bags; Russ Ham for the koozies that were in the bags as well; and Walmart, Federal Distributors and Liberty Mutual Insurance for providing the golf balls.

Looking ahead, the Classic dates for 2014 are September 25, 26 and 27.

If would like to get involved another year, feel free to talk to one of the committee members as we are planning for another year. We are always looking for sponsors and volunteers. The Boothbay Charities Classic Committee includes Tony Krason, Brenda Blackman, Leon Blackman, Ken Marston, Andrew and April Pinkham, Thomas and Bonnie Erskine, Ron and Estelle Appel, Bonnie McKenney, Kevin Mayberry, Milton Webber, Steve and Laura Francis, Tom and Laura Blake, Rob Wheeler and Russ Ham.