[Scott358]

Being on the SBPLI FIRST Committee that sets up the LI event, this was not something we wanted to do. I comes down to having the financial support to do "everything" in a very, very difficult economy.

The Long Island FIRST Regional is like no other, in that the single largest corporate contribution is "only" $25k (which was the case even when the economy was good), then it goes down quickly from there. Many other events get upwards of $100k (or even more) from a single company, then the donations from other companies on top of that.

Our LI Regional is truly a "home grown" event, for which if it were not for the coordination and fund raising efforts of Fred Breihut of SBPLI (which is a not-for-profit organization), we would not have.

I agree the big screen would be nice, but I would ask everyone to keep the big picture of the whole event in mind.

Regards,
Scott358