1,000 Charity Poker Run Sponsor Sign-Ups Moving At Brisk Pace

To celebrate his 60th birthday last week, NBA legend Michael Jordan made news with a $10 million donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. According to the Make-A-Wish website, it is the largest contribution made by a single donor in the organization’s 43-year history.

Sponsor registration is off to a strong start for the 2023 1,000 Islands Charity Poker Run. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

That fact was not lost on Renee Lalonde of the Clayton, N.Y., July 13-15 nonprofit event’s organizing committee, which includes her husband, Ken, Alexandra Buduson, Bobby Cantwell, Dave Montroy, Jeff Morgan and Courtney Rutherford. Make-A-Wish of Central New York is the poker run’s primary benefitting charity. Asked if she had a specific sponsorship fundraising-goal, she quipped, “To beat Michael Jordan’s donation.”

The 2023 event has received 19 sponsor commitments since registration opened less than a week ago, from the $10,000 presenting sponsorship taken—as it has been since the event began in 2018—by Aqua-Mania in nearby Alexandria Bay, N.Y.—to $1,950 silver sponsorships.

Sponsor registration doesn’t close until the event begins. Participant registration opens March 1.

“We’ll never turn away a sponsor,” said Lalonde. “We have some sponsors who don’t need a boat slip so we’ll go to the day-of as long as they don’t mind their logo not being on printed materials and such.”