Amazing! Given the forecast on Friday, I thought we would be building a boat and gathering two of every animal on Saturday instead of playing volleyball. However our hpnotiq toast to sunny days on Friday night seemed to do the trick, and we were blessed with two gorgeous days. The turnout was a little lower than last year (can you blame people for making alternate plans with such a damp outlook for the weekend?), we lost a few major contributors, and I don't think we charged enough for the cookies but from the registration fees, volleyball raffle, cookie and T-shirt sales and some very generous donations, we still managed to raise $6,571 for the Dutchess County Coalition for the Homeless. Not too shabby for a bunch of volleyball geeks! Just in case you were wondering, we drew 40 teams of doubles on Saturday, 48 teams of doubles on Sunday and 12 teams of quads for a total of 224 players (which is just a few short of the 240 players from last year). Thanks! Xie-xie! Kiitos! Merci! Danke! Grazie! Arigato! Kamsamnida! Spasibo! Gracias! Bedankt! Mahalo!

As usual, there are tons of people to thank. First of all, to all the players who travel from both near and far, thanks for participating in this event. Without you, there would be no tournament. And to all the sponsors for donating the prizes (so that all the proceeds can go directly to the homeless shelter), donations for the shelter and for the cash donations. Finally to all the people who work so hard to make this tournament run so smoothly.

Now to mention a few people by name (and in no particular order):

If I failed to mention you (or a friend), please accept my apologies. All during the day, I noticed people helping out in one way or another (cleaning up the bathrooms, gathering trash, helping with nets, ...), and I'm sure I forgot to include someone. Please accept my apologies!

Thank you to everyone who participated in this year's tournament, your support makes a big difference in the continued success of DCCH and HRH.