South Carolina Sit Down no. 16 - Yet another record breaker!

It's fun breaking records especially when you SMASH them! We did just that today (April 14, 2012) at S.C. Sit Down no. 16, both in attendance, prizes awarded, and money raised for SisterCare, Inc. I thought last year was good but it cannot compare to today.

People started arriving early, as usual. by noon when we planned on people arriving we already had nearly 100 people! And it just kept growing from there. The final attendance total for the day was 207!!! That's a lot of people!

Plus, the donors were quite generous. This year's event was very heavy on cigars with plenty of samplers and the most full boxes of cigars I've ever seen at our Sit Down.

Speaking of donors, here is the event poster that was displayed and you will see in most of the winners pictures. Take a look at those names. 44 total contributors this year; another record!

One of the new sponsors this year was Boveda, Inc. They made some nice cigar bags with the event name on them complete with humidification.

I had a great group of people helping me too. We modeled this year's event after last year's and it really moved smoothly. People signed in, got their raffle tickets, then got their cigars from me and the reps. It all flowed nicely.

The event is best told with pictures so here are plenty to tell the whole story.

Will Woodcock, rep for General Cigar, has his supply of cigars for the patrons

Jim Massengale, Henry Richardson, and John Perry manning the raffle table.

The raffle ticket table

Now for some pics of the patrons enjoying themselves:

Matt Elrod and his brother helped me hand out cigars

Jack Porter, one of the original Sit Down members and one of the photographers with me

Let's take a look at the raffle tables:

Believe it or not, these pics were taken early so the raffle table actually got much fuller! The reps and other patrons brought even more prizes to add. The tables were quite full by the time we started the raffle!


Here we see some of the bags of cigars the patrons got for entering the raffle.

The line for entering the raffle kept growing as people arrived.

Now, back to the attendees...see anyone you know?

Here is Herbie and Sandi (left), who drove from New York City to be here today. Sandi and Herbie were also here 2 years ago. They are seated with Joe Edmonston and his wife, Tassie (right), who are from Atlanta.

Eric Webster with Casey McBrair who manned the sign in table. They kept quite busy!

One nice addition this year was from Joyce Larkins, owner of LashesandMustashes, a mobile cigar lounge. She offered her lounge for 2  hours including travel to Columbia. We decided to auction this item instead of raffling it. The lounge is quite nice as you'll see.

Joyce, in the hat, with a couple visitors checking out the lounge.

Yours truely, ready to start the raffle!

Now let's see the raffle winners!

Oliva hat winners

Oliva shirt winners

Oliva ashtray winners

Craftsman Bench cigar case from Fuente/J.C. Newman

Montecristo hats winners

Joya de Nicaragua crystal ashtray winner

SAG Imports ashtray winners

Xikar winners

Tracey's Smoke Shop winner, Dustin Pike

Heartfelt Industries winners, group one

Heartfelt Industries winners, group two

Montecristo ashtray winner

Some patrons enjoying Reinado Cigars

J. Fuego lighter winner

Modern Age Tobacco Shop gift certificate winners

Eric Webster, faithful attendee donated some prizes again this year. Here is the winner of the Xikar Ash Can he donated.

Diamond Crown digital hygrometer winner. Prize donated by Fuente/J.C. Newman

Cuban Crafters winners, Mona Sproles and Jay Austin

Drew Estates Liga Privada #9 ashtray winner, Micah Norman

East End Cigars humidor winners

Villager Stokkebye winner, Brian Corrigan

Arganese Cigars winners, John Senese and Bic Baucom

Pride Cigars winner, Chad Hildebran

Famous Smoke Shop winner, Henry Richardson

Perdomo Exhibicion Sun Grown winner, supplied by Eric Webster, Mitch Houston

My Uzi Weighs a Ton mazo supplied by Eric Webster, Joe Lumpkin

E. P. Carrillo winners, Twig Gray and Rubin Salas

Vegas de Santiago winners

Partagas Decatis travel humidor winner, John Gunther

LashesandMustashes auction winner, Mike Johnson with a bid of $200

Monte Pascoal winner, Malcolm Graham

Lil Brown Smoke Shop winner, Tyler Spencer

SAG Imports winner, Bob Manganello

La Herencia de Cuba winner, Bobby Scott

Top Shelf Cigars winner, Bob Lytle

Torano Cigars winner, Malcom  Rentz (accepting Allen Francis)

Holt's Cigars winner, Jim Van Dyke (accepting Brian Corrigan)

La Gloria Cubana Retro Especiale Club winner, Greg Marsh

Camacho winner, Bennett Garner

CigarsDirect.com winner, Phyllis Perry

Cuban Crafters  humidor winner, Joey Desroches

Graycliff winners, yours truely and Bob Connors

Fuente/J.C. Newman humidor winner, Dave Kenealy

Fuente/J.C. Newman 8-5-8 winner, Joe Edmonston

Fuente/J.C. Newman Hemingway Work of Art winner, Bic Baucom

Fuente/J.C. Newman Magnum R winner, Tassie Edmonston

Another Vegas de Santiago winner

Grand Prize winner, John Perry

Winner of Big Smoke tickets

Mike Johnson with Joyce Larkins, owner of LashesandMustashes mobile cigar lounge

Me with Sandi Turnipseed and John Perry

Sandi traveled from New York City to be here today.

So, the event comes to a close. About 45 minutes before the end of the event Jim took a count of the raffle proceeds. He came back with an amazing total!

Actually, money kept coming in after this total was announced. Final raffle total; $7300!!!! The largest raffle total to date. That is a 50% increase over last year's total of $4865!!!!!!

Now, all I have to do is take the proceeds to SisterCare. Dwight Galloway, SisterCare board member, attended the event so he knew what the total was. I hoped he would not tell the SisterCare home office the total before I got there. No matter, they will appreciate it.

Here are the checks presented to SisterCare, Inc.

And here I am with Nancy Barton, Director of SisterCare, Inc. presenting the checks to her.

That's if for this year! We'll do it all again next year...hopefully! As long as the cigar industry is willing to help we'll continue to have the event and raise money for SisterCare, Inc.

I would like to thank Hemingways Saloon in Irmo, SC for allowing us to host our events. The layout of the bar is perfect for our event. Thank you very much!

FYI, the small fall event will be Saturday, November 3, 2012 at Hemingways Saloon.

The 2013 S.C. Sit Down (the BIG one) will be Saturday, April 20th. Make plans to be here!