Past Events - June 2008 with Rocky Patel

Our June 2008 dinner was full of surprises. From the outset, it looked as if was to be a night of sipping some fine scotch with Ben's choice of the night. Then, days before the dinner, a surprise guest was announced, the man himself, whose company has been a true friend to the club, Mr. Rocky Patel. Rocky's popularity knew no limits, as members were actually queued up to get a photo, autograph, or both. This dinner was certainly one of the more "photo-laden" in a while. If that wasn't enough, in addition to passing out two great smokes, Rocky extended an invite for another factory tour, at his facility in Honduras, for 2009.

And, if that wasn't enough, and at this point don't you think it ought to be, Rocky made a very gracious donation to the club: a live auction of an all expense paid trip to his factory (typically visitors pay their own airfare but all other hospitality is top notch and taken care of) and included with the trip, a very special 100 count box of limited edition cigars. The bidding went fast and furious, and members Mark Yuknevitch and Giacomo Selloni neared the $1500 mark, Rocky outdid himself: for the matching bid of $1600, not one, but both bidders, and a guest each, would get the trip and cigars. Needless to say, Mark and Giacomo were very popular the rest of the evening. However, to put the icing on the cake, Rocky donated the sum of both auctions to the club. $3200!!! At this point of the night, no one even seemed to notice they weren't sipping Scotch.

Rocky and Mark, our very friendly Rocky Patel Sales Rep, were awarded honorary memberships and each wasted no time just kicking back in our club, Mark played Texas Hold "em and Rocky was firmly seated at the dominoes table until almost 4AM. An event like this will be hard to beat!!

Photos courtesy of Tom Stroud, http://www.trsprophoto.com/