October 20, 2012

19th Winter Swap Success Even Against Cardinals

Running an event like Alpine Shop's Winter Swap involves coordinating hundreds of people over thousands of hours of planning and execution. What we can't control, though, are those lovable little birds-on-bat, St Louis' own baseball Cardinals. For the second time in a year, our home town's favorite boys of summer have thrown an unexpected - but absolutely welcomed - monkey wrench into our plans. When David Freese homered in the 11th inning to send the 2011 World Series to a game 7, our Women's Ski and Snowboard Weekend kickoff party (the second weekend of our 18th Swap event) had to be cancelled after we had more than three quarters of our registered attendees cancel on us following the most exciting playoff game in major league baseball history. And, all of this happened just before midnight on a Thursday night. With Jeannie Thoren - our keynote speaker - scheduled to fly in the next morning from Chicago, we had to make the call based on what we know about St Louis. You see, St Louis in October belongs to the Cardinals. We had no chance. And let me tell you, our store was deserted- as was every other retail outlet in the Lou -  on Friday, Oct. 28, 2011. Thankfully, Jeannie was able to change her flight plans for free and we didn't waste anyone's time as the Cardinals won their 10th World Series Championship that night. [caption id="attachment_1659" align="aligncenter" width="300"]19th Annual Winter Swap The tent fills quickly with customers as the 19th Annual Winter Swap begins at Alpine Shop Kirkwood.[/caption] Fast forward 358 days from there to Friday, Oct. 19 and the start of our 19th Annual Swap. This time we're faced with Game 5 of the National League Championship Series - a clinch game for the Cardinals. But after all the hours we put into a Swap, there was no chance for us to cancel this event. Thankfully, we found St Louis still loves Swap no matter what else is going on. After helping us get things started with a rousing rendition of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (video to come), more than 400 people have walked through our doors just an hour into this year's event. At $5 a person to enter, that means we have already raised over $2000 to donate to the Disabled Athletes Sports Association - the organization long-time benefactor Gateway Disabled Ski Program became a part of last year. So, our thanks to St Louis and to everyone who has come out with us tonight to make our 19th Annual Winter Swap kick-off so successful.

News Updates St. Louis-area




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