Casino Royale Rakes in Nearly $40K for District Students

Cheers could be heard all around the blackjack, craps, Texas hold ‘em tables and the roulette wheel at the 7th Annual Casino Royale in the , which raked in $39.5K for the New Providence School District.

More than 200 local residents went "all in" for the high-stakes action, which was organized by the New Providence Education Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 2004 that raises money for the district each year through Casino Royale, direct solicitation of households in town, and a variety of other events.

“We’ve already had 20 walk-ins, which is amazing, and every year, that number seems to be going up,” said Teri Covello, NPEF Vice President, at the beginning of the event. “The people of New Providence always come out and support us in the end, which is really what counts.”

Items sold at the live and silent auctions contributed to the total raised to benefit the 2,400 district students. Prizes included a 1-week vacation at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont, a Hampton’s NY weekend getaway, Payton and Eli Manning signed jerseys, Pete Sampras signed racquet, A-Rod signed Louisville Slugger, a foursome at Hudson National, tickets to the The Letterman Show, Live with Kelly Show, and Broadway shows, among others.

The night also featured “Diamonds and Champagne” where a glass of bubbly could be purchased to have a one-in-100 shot at winning a diamond Michele watch, donated by . There were a number of other door prizes, a 50/50 raffle, and a chance to win an iPad 2 at this festive event.

Angela Lazzari, of New Providence, went home with the diamond Michelle watch while John Dunleavy, also of New Providence, won the iPad2 with lucky ticket number two.

The foundation exceeded their $35,000 goal, the amount raised at , and money raised will assist the foundation with funding special-requested grants from teachers.

Before the event each year, NPEF President Hugo Barth said the foundation sends out grant requests to all teachers in all four district schools, and some of the teachers may ask for special items for their classes that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to have within the district’s operating budget.

“They may want books, they may want laptops, or a special program. This year, we received well in excess of $150K in grant requests so we can’t honor them all but we prioritize them,” Barth said. “We basically satisfy whatever grants we can … and we try to equal it out over time between and , and the and . We’re trying to balance where the money goes, whether it’s arts or science or math.”

Barth said the foundation comes up with a spreadsheet of grant requests to fulfill based on the amount of money that could be potentially raised from Casino Royale and other foundation monies.

Each year before the event, Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Miceli said the foundation meets to determine which grants would be approved at various funding levels.

“So if they raised $40K, here are the grants that would be approved at $40K level. If we had $50K, here are the grants that would be approved at that level. The next meeting of the [Foundation’s] Board [of Trustees] will be in February and they will tally up the funds from this and they’ll know how much they have,” Miceli explained. “Then if it’s in excess of $50K, they’ll look at the other grants on the table and determine how many more they’ll approve beyond that.”

Last year, the $35K raised at Casino Royale was combined with other monies raised by the foundation, totaling $55K in grants for teachers in all four district schools.

This year’s event is a fluke because it’s normally held every November and the check is presented to the Board of Education in December, Barth said. But the event had to be postponed because of the that hit our area in late October.

While the exact amount that will be donated to the school district is not yet known, Barth said the foundation is going to present a check to the Board of Education at an upcoming meeting.

“When we give the check to the , it has a list of all the grants we have approved so our spreadsheet goes into their public record and they make the disbursements,” he said.

Miceli said while a lot of money is raised at Casino Royale, there are minimal costs always associated with the event.

“Aside from the vendor who comes in with all of the [game] tables, most of the food, the drinks, the baskets — everything else is donated. All of the prizes for the silent auction and the live auction are donated,” Miceli said. “So it’s really just the food, the invitations, the publicity and really the cost of the vendor. They also have to get a number of different licenses to run the event too, but that’s all of the costs. It’s been fun.”

Valerie Wass, who co-owns in town with her husband, Jeff, said Covello and a few other foundation members approached her about catering the event and she jumped right on board.

“We were very anxious to do a fundraiser like that, especially where a lot of town people would be present. For the people who haven’t eaten at Muscle Maker yet, this is a great way for them to sample the food,” said Valerie. “The [foundation board members] are wonderful. They came and we worked together with them on two different mornings to get the menu right and they are a wonderful group.  I love to be a part of something edgy like a Casino Night. I’m surprised with how many customers I’ve already seen here. It’s nice to see them and I hope to get some new customers, too.”

Miceli said one of the best parts of the night was seeing how many district families were out to have a good time and support the district.

“There were families that have been here for many, many years and their kids have graduated and we’re always somewhat concerned if an event like this will continue to be successful year after year, but it’s really wonderful to me to see that the younger families are now participating and taking the place of those families who had been regulars here,” Miceli said. “With all of the different budgetary constraints that we’ve had, this has been a wonderful opportunity to tap into some additional resources in the town to support the schools in alternative ways. It’s nice to see that this event in particular continues to be supported.”