The 2007 ROAR event Passport to the World was held with great success on November 10, 2007. A total of 530 tickets were sold with an actual attendance by about 500 members of the Lakeside community, a significant increase from recent years. There was a big shift this year in the format for the event, which increased enthusiasm and excitement for ROAR. Passport to the World took place at a totally new venue, The Museum of Flight, and a sumptuous sit-down dinner was served with guests seated in grade-level groupings, which attendees seemed to enjoy. During dinner there was a motivational speech by Tom Doelger, followed by a silent pledge to “Embrace Academic Excellence”. A short 20-item live auction hosted by past Lakeside parent Steve Hardy was lively and fun, and completely new this year was a dessert auction, with fabulous sweets provided by members of the Lakeside community, raising over $12,000. A raffle prize was once again generously donated by Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door, resulting in a record-breaking $14,230 raffle take. The evening was roundly praised for being entertaining and fun, and far fewer volunteer hours were required to stage the event since needed decorations and clean-up were minimal. We are very grateful to all the volunteers and attendees who helped this evening net approximately $196,000, an increase of about $80,000 over last year.

One of the greatest challenges of putting on ROAR, is the goal of making this both a fundraising event and a celebration of our community. We are pleased to say that Passport the World was successful in both areas. Although we certainly showed the event to be an unequivocal financial success, we are most proud of the fact that nearly all who attended rated it as a very enjoyable evening spent with the Lakeside community.

Many thanks for joining us!

Lisa Tall, Vivian Chao, Irma Suntay and Julie Nelson