Crawfish Craze Bulletin - Deadline extended to Monday!

Friday, April 17, 2009

 

Dear Tiger fans, supporters, and crawfish lovers:

 

As you know, our annual Crawfish Craze is next Saturday, April 25th and response has been great, especially considering the challenges we are all facing in this current economy. I wanted to share some news and reminders to make sure everyone has full information and has a wonderful time.

 

DEADLINE TO ORDER CRAWFISH ONLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED! If you have been waiting to confirm your plans to get tickets and crawfish orders in, we are pleased to report you now have until Monday evening to order and pay for your admission and crawfish platters online. Our crawfish vendor and sponsor Catering Cajun is working with us and is waiting until the last possible time to place the live crawfish order. Obviously, we have to know how much crawfish to bring up from Louisiana and we can’t just run down to the Publix and buy extra sacks of crawfish. But our crawfish order has to be placed early Tuesday so if you are planning to attend you must go to our Payments page online no later than Monday to ensure you get your mudbug fix.  Go to www.lsuatlanta.com/payments to lock in your order using our secure Paypal account.

 

The mail order form must be received by Monday as well so if you have not already mailed in a paper form, please do not use this method and order online instead. If you have any questions, please email us at the address at the bottom of this message.

 

FOOD SERVICE TIME – I want to remind everyone that while the program time is Noon until 5 pm, our boil has always been a lunch picnic event and food service will take place between 1 and 3 pm. Our vendors cannot keep food hot and tasty sitting out all afternoon. We also don’t want to “burn out” our great volunteers by having to staff our food preparation and service responsibilities all afternoon. 

 

However, if you ordered crawfish it will be there for you even if you are unexpectedly delayed in arriving. We will be checking everyone in and at 3 pm we will package crawfish boxes for anyone who has not checked in and you can pick them up at the front table.

 

DESSERT SURPRISE – I am pleased to welcome Catered Cakes as a new Purple and Gold Level Sponsor of LSU Atlanta. Kevin is a New Orleans native who has a flair for baking sweet treats and wants to promote his business to our members. Later in our food service period, after most people have had their fill of red beans, jambalaya, burgers, dogs and spicy bugs, Kevin will hand out samples of some tasty treats. Of course, this is also included in your admission price. Oops, I think I let the cat out of the bag!

 

OUR SPONSORS ARE AWESOME! I’m sure longtime chapter members have noticed that we have brought in many new business partners this year. It’s all part of the commitment by this board and me to expand the quality and quantity of services and events for people like YOU. Our sponsors provide us with food, prizes, and cash that are supercharging our efforts to upgrade the chapter and reach even more LSU fans in Georgia. Most of the owners of these businesses are Louisiana folks and all are LSU supporters and deserve our support and thanks.  Please check out all of our sponsors listed on our Web site and patronize these special businesses. Please tell them how much you appreciate their support when you drop in. 

 

A SPECIAL THANKS to all of the great volunteers who have responded to our call to give up some of their party time to help serve YOU. When we get a lot of people to come help, no one has to work all day and everyone has more fun. No one, including board members, gets free crawfish or special perks to come out to help set up, cook, serve food, handle registration and ticket sales, pick up trash, etc. Our chapter exists to not only provide social opportunities for people with common Louisiana and LSU ties, but also to raise money for our scholarship endowments and other special causes like the LSU Tiger Band Hall fund. I am humbled to be president of an alumni chapter with so many dedicated volunteers and passionate members and supporters. 

 

If you have not become a dues paying member of LSU Atlanta, I ask you to consider stepping up with a $20 membership.  Go to www.lsuatlanta.com/membership for details. Dues provide unrestricted funds that help us with administrative tasks and planning and executing events and activities all year long. We have started our Members Only Prize Drawings and have other ideas to provide more benefits to our members as time goes on. If you have already joined the chapter, THANK YOU!

 

We have worked hard to come up with a crawfish plan that provides a fair price and an organized and expanded food service that provides everyone with plenty of food and should eliminate past issues with crawfish service where there were long waits and some people did not get a fair share of the crawfish. We are all feeling the pinch of a tough economy and I feel confident that your board has taken everything into consideration. It’s difficult to balance the need to provide a good value while also meeting our pledged mission of raising funds for LSU. Please buy raffle tickets and participate in our auctions so we can have a financial legacy to go with memories of a great party!

 

Remember that MONDAY IS THE ABSOLUTE DEADLINE to order your crawfish. People can walk up and buy a ticket and enjoy the other food next Saturday, but we cannot promise any new crawfish sales for the reasons given above. I appreciate your understanding.

 

Until then, GEAUX TIGERS!

 

Steve Ory

Chapter President

events@lsuatlanta.com