This year's Sweetheart Charity Ball was very much like last year's, a delicious meal, great entertainment and a room full of wonderful people who are our very best supporters. Our last count was 272 people in attendance compared to 280 last year.

We are grateful to the Crossroads Health Center for being one of our Ruby Sponsors and especially grateful to you for your support these past three years. The success of the Charity Ball was established in 2011 as a direct result of the support of good friends like you.

I am happy to report to you that this special event received an exceptional amount of publicity. Newscenter 25 ran 30 second spots repeatedly on all 4 of their local stations for nearly four weeks. We had five large color ads in the Victoria Advocate and Rick and Emett both ran color ads in their respective tabloids; we even had two radio stations running spots. In addition, the event was listed in at least 4 local calendars including the Advocate, Crossroads, Cultural Calendar and Chamber of Commerce.

A special event like this is quite labor intensive and the net income doesn't usually match the work involved. However, we expect to net about $24.000 after all the receipts are counted. While the proceeds may seem modest the exposure we receive from the media and the goodwill we generated at the event itself is priceless. With this in mind we are already looldng forward to 2013 and a return engagement on Valentine's Day. We will share more with you in the coming days.

In the meantime, allow roe to wish you and our friends at Crossroads a blessed and prosperous ous year.