Friday evening we drove down to the Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Palm Harbor, Florida, to speak at a fundraiser dinner put on by the Gentile Family Foundation. The day had begun with a golf tournament featuring local golf and sports celebrities and then all the participants gathered for dinner in Edinburgh Hall. In addition to a wonderful meal, there was a silent auction and a live auction with all kinds of sports memorabilia, trips and experiences as well as raffles for all kinds of golf equipment and restaurant gift cards.
We were there because one of the charities receiving the proceeds from the day's events was the Gift of Adoption Fund. We received a very generous grant from Gift of Adoption Fund last year that helped us with our travel expenses for Davis' adoption. Gift of Adoption contacted us a couple of weeks ago and asked if we could come to the dinner and share about our adoption, because the monies we were given came directly from this golf tournament last year.
We were very welcomed by Mike Gentile of the Gentile Family Foundation, as well as several Gift of Adoption board members who sat with us at the dinner. All of the people in the room were so friendly and supportive and one gentleman gifted us $100 in steakhouse gift cards that he won in the raffle.
The bonus for the sports fans in my family was that the other charity receiving funds from the event was the Shelton Quarles' Impact Foundation. Shelton was a member of the 2002 Superbowl Bucs team and currently works as the Director of Football Operations for the Bucs. This is Shelton at the microphone (he spoke directly after our family!) and standing off to the side was the announcer for the evening program - Ronnie "Night Train" Lane of Tampa sports radio 620 WDAE. Shelton was kind enough to pose for a picture with all of my guys after the event was over.
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