California Dreamin’ Night
The Parent’s Clubs of California hosted almost 400 California cadets and their guests (bringing the total of cadets to well over 800) to a night to remind them of home. California sends about 450 cadets to USAFA, over 10% of the entire wing. To make this happen they had about 50 volunteer parents this year, as well as help from the local JROTC from Air Academy High School.
With a budget of $25,000 the California Parents Clubs are able to decorate, feed, give away and raffle plenty of gifts and prizes to all in attendance. Their major donors are BJ’s in Colorado Springs (most of the food: baked ziti, Caesar salad, garlic knots, root beer, and pizookies), Spirit Airlines, Garden of the Gods, The Lodge at Flying Horse, Disneyland, The Academy Hotel, NFL Players Accoc., The Los Angeles Angels, Nutrabolt, RxBar, Glico, Element, Squaw Valley, Samsung, 7-11 Colorado Springs, LA Sparks, SF Giants, and Creative Cakes. Most of these companies are from California but they also received a lot of support from local Colorado Springs businesses.
Throughout the night cadets were invited to participate in a wide variety of games/contests. There was a screaming contest, a dance-off, musical chairs, and a couple rounds of hot potato. It was entertaining for both the players and crowd!
There were so many prizes! They had baseballs signed by SF Giants players, signed helmets and balls, Disneyland passes, Spirit Airlines travel vouchers, Pocky snacks, toothpaste, Element sweatshirts and jackets, tickets to the Colorado Symphony, tickets to Pier 39, Squaw Valley lift tickets, ProBar protein bars, Smashmallow snacks, pistachios, avocados, freshly picked fruit, In-N-Out gift cards, Sun-Maid raisins, cupcakes, Ca. grown clothing and hats, Sacramento Kings gift basket, Angels Mike Trout shirts and Trader Joe’s gift basket just to name a few.
The parents who were involved with this year’s California Dreamin’ Night would like you to know that they do all of the work with the event because they realize that their cadets are more than just college students. They know how hard they work and what they sacrifice to get a great education and be part of the best military in the world. They do this event to show their appreciation to the cadets and to let them know how proud they are to be their parents.
To view the rest of the pictures of this event go to Galleries > Extracurricular > Special Events or click the link below.