2024 Results- Another Record Year!!

WE DID IT! WE DID IT!!  WE DID IT!!!  Another Record year!

You all are AMAZING!!

As we start closing the books on our St. Baldrick’s donation, I am excited to announce that Growler nation has answered the call again and raised OVER $212,000! Let that sink in………………….
That is $5k more than last year. So we managed to once again pass $200,000 and continue to beat our previous year.  We have done this in basically every year minus the Covid year.  As I said last year… I STILL have no words…

Special Thanks to our big individual fundraisers in 2024! Scot Carboni, Chip Hopkins, Jessica Kronen were all over 5K.  I also wanted to call out the creativity that continues to allow our fundraising growth year over year.  North Hills did their own fundraiser and pulled in over 4k. Overserved auction grabbed over 5k. Seven Oaks had their Pickle Ball tourney to help Team Kona raise just shy of 10K and all 3 Satellite events made record numbers in terms of proceeds!  We also had an external event at Bottle Rev 3 and also one at Wandering Moose.  Rich Clingman sold popcorn and initiated a 50/50 raffle by his own direction.  Amazing.  The last point I’ll call out is the fact we had about the same number of giving units, but overall people are raising more money.  Some of our heavy hitters raised less this year and we also didn’t have two female shavers driving up donations… but we raised more than last year. We weren’t chasing a million… and we raised more than last year. The momentum is growing.  I personally ALWAYS want to exceed the prior year and I was admittedly nervous coming into this year.   You all have proven I don’t need to feel that way in 2025.  I am now confident we’ll pass $215K in 2025.  You all will find a way!!   I feel so blessed to be a part of all this.  Thank you all!

Give this new fundraising total we are now….

#1 SB event in North Carolina

#2 SB event in the Southeast

#8 SB event in the entire country!

… for all St Baldrick’s Events!

You all should be very proud of what we collectively accomplished TOGETHER! Our goal was #1 in NC like last year and we did it again while also climbing into the Top Ten nationally for the SECOND time.  Again… AMAZING!!

This should be my last email of the “season” 🙂  I expect the number to creep up some the remainder of 2024 with corporate matches and the potential for more giving but $200K was my hope and beating 2023 my stretch goal, so I am 100% content!!

The Growleadership team already met earlier this week to download our thoughts and we look to be even better in 2025.  I think the model is set and I really don’t expect many changes beyond creating efficiencies and rounding out some rough “backend” processes.  The only tweak to the GPI will be to set the division weight as 0,2,4,6 next year (as I mentioned before).  Enjoy your winter, pat yourselves on the back, and keep as healthy as possible until we see each other in 2025.

We are in talks to arrange some “sponsor recognition nights” over the winter where we’ll attempt to send some “patronage” to our food sponsors on a night that may normally be light for them and where growler nation can go and eat and pay them back for their support and also maybe see each other before next summer 🙂  Stay tuned for emails on that as we figure out how best to pull it off.

It was a pleasure being involved in the event once again and I wanted to express my Thanks for the “gift” I was given by the collective Growler community.  I will speak for Cristine and Allison and extend their Thanks as well.  Not expected, but much appreciated.  It came at a good time for me personally 🙂

Bill Speri

Opening Night is less than 2 weeks away!

A few Points of Interest as we all start to get prepared…

  1. You have 7 days to adjust your Team Rosters and assure the added player can get their shirt preference added to their player bags.  You can add players until July 30th but we can’t guarantee T-shirt preference.
  2. The schedule for 2024 is available here: https://growlervolleyball.com/2024-schedule-and-standings/
  3. Volunteer sign ups for Growler, GrowlHer, Jr Growler, and Growler Masters are available… please visit the following url to enter your preferred timeslots: https://growlervolleyball.com/volunteer/
  4. Registration Update!  We have 324 people registered at this time… less than 10 remaining!!
  5. SARC “perks” for all 4 weeks are back via AUCTION!!!    Win and you don’t want to worry about Parking!  You want prime location to enjoy the event??… go here and “Bid” your way to that reality!!: https://app.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/2024-growler-42565  This is under utilized every year… Don’t miss out!  I’d also love a bidding war 🙂
  6. As always Growler Gear beyond your player T-shirts will be sold… check the Growler Gear page for a sneak peak at what options will be available: https://growlervolleyball.com/growler-gear/
  7. St Baldricks Stats:  We are over 55K raised for St Baldrick’s which is a really great start! (last year we were at 44k when I sent this email).
  • 11 Teams have already exceeded $1500, 13 have exceeded $1,000
  • 3 Teams have yet to initiate their fundraising.. at $0
  • Of the 333 registered players… only 160 have a St Baldrick’s page and only 90 have raised more than a Penny.  If we can get everyone involved there is no telling what heights we can reach!!!  Please encourage your teammates to get a page started!

Thank you to all for all that you do for St Baldricks and your support of the Growler! We look forward to an amazing Tournament and can’t wait to get started! Please reach out with any questions or concerns!  I’ll shoot another email out prior to the event concerning Night 1 specifics.

Information for Growler 2024

Growler Crew,

Some key points of Information for Growler 2024 and some “action items” for everyone to care for. 

  1. Online Registration continues with about 15 participants “missing”: https://signup.com/go/xCoJgzg
    • EVERY player must access this registration, sign their waiver, confirm eligibility and pay their now $93 by July 29th to play opening night.
  2. Volunteering Link is back up and operational.  This year we again have Growler, Jr Growler, GrowlHer, and Growler Masters volunteer opportunities listed online via this link: https://growlervolleyball.com/volunteer/.  As you know Volunteering counts towards your team’s GPI.
    • Please sign up only for what you intend to staff.  We will be checking to make sure the roles are filled by those that sign up for them and of course we NEED the volunteers when the events happen, so we depend on your attendance.
  3. The 2024 Growler Schedule for Weeks 1 thru 3 is available here: https://growlervolleyball.com/2024-schedule-and-standings/
    •  Best of luck as you play cross Divisions Week 1 and then fight for the 1st ever Division titles Weeks 2 and 3.  Every team plays 3 weeks at Springdale and 1 week at either Greystone or Lake Park.

Thanks as always for all that you all do to make the Growler a success each year.  Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and I can promise we’ll do what we can to make this the best event possible.

Swamp Setters once again raising $$ for St Baldrick’s at Bottle Rev 3 next Thursday (7/13)

Growler team Swamp Setters once again raising $$ for St Baldrick’s at Bottle Rev 3 next Thursday (7/13)!  This was a ton of fun last year!

All are welcome… invite your friends!

Official Flier below…

Address for Bottle Rev: 7713 Lead Mine Rd, Raleigh, NC 27615

Please come on out and enjoy more Growler related fun!.

See you at the bar!

Growler 2023 kick off letter!

Growler Crew,

As we are just over a month away from the start of Growler 2023 I just wanted to shoot out a note on a few topics of interest.  This is a long one but hopefully worth your time.

The general idea for Growler 2023 is to once again “run it back”.  Another theme we are trying to exemplify is “we heard you” and lastly a renewed focus on “why are we doing this”.

With that in mind here we go

Run it Back:

  1. Same teams and same number of teams (36).  Same format. First 4 on Monday. Tourney GPI calculation is unchanged.  There will be moderate movement of teams among divisions to maintain as much parity as possible and reward the “up and coming” teams.
  2. Registration cost stays the same plus a minor Processing Fee I’ll explain below ($83 Total).
  3. All beer vendors back.  Most food vendors are back (sourcing some new ones).
  4. GrowlHer is expanded (more games) and back at Lake Park Aug 12th
  5. Sr Growler is expanded and moving to Greystone Aug 19th
  6. Jr Growler will have an instruction phase in the morning and then a Competitive division (with more teams) in the afternoon to crown a Jr Growler Champion (at Springdale).
  7. Volunteer tracking will be back for all Main Growler and satellite events and the plan is to have those roles available for selection as of July 10th.
  8. The team minimum for fundraising is unchanged at $1500 each.

We Heard you:

  1. More seltzer… White Claw will be the seltzer sponsor for ALL Growler Events
  2. Light Beer… we will have Miller Lite available at SARC (at least) every week.
  3. We plan to set up and staff a Player’s pavilion to aid in providing each player a means of getting food, beer, Gatorade (Thanks Pepsi!), player bags (w/bands) etc away from where the masses congregate.  Details are still being ironed out, but we are committed to making this work.  GFL is poised to help us with this.
  4. We are moving registration payments to “per individual” as opposed to “per team captain” and the payment will be performed online (thus the processing fee).  We will also be able to complete the Waivers online.  Mark will still send the roster to the captains this afternoon to fill out and set your squads and complimentary T-shirt order (* Please send your captain your size and color shirt that you want by next Thursday June 29th.  Colors are green, blue and gray.  Go to GrowlerVolleyball.com to see actual colors).  NOTE: We are not allowing for the purchase of Mulligan’s or extra T-shirts via registration this year (you can purchase these “on site” as needed).
  5. With rising materials costs we did have to increase Growler Gear $5 per item this year, however, we are eating any credit card “fees” that we had in the past and waiving any increased cost associated with larger shirts etc.  AKA One flat fee for all items.
  6. The Growleadership Team has partnered with the Lake Park Volleyball Board to make some physical improvements to the courts at Lake Park.  It’s been a great partnership which will provide expanded playing area around the Upper court, better drainage, and increased lighting throughout the property.  Special Thanks to Jacobs Construction (David) and GreenTech (Scott) for donating their labor, goods, and expertise to help make this happen.

Why are we doing this?:

  1. The Growler Shirts this year focus on the Growler Kids that we have sponsored each year in addition to what we raised for St Baldrick’s.  The names of all 13 form the volleyball on the front of our T-shirts.
  2. We are doing some more Media this year involving the Growler kids and will be providing that to you for your own knowledge and also to possibly use in your fundraising pleas.
  3. As we are set to pass $1 Million raised this year, the CEO of St Baldrick’s will be in attendance on the last night.
  4. Please go to St Baldricks and set up your individual page… All team pages are in place that you can associate yourself to.  I’ll be tracking how many pages compared to participants again this year.  I really would love for everyone to have a page and attempt some degree of fundraising.  It isn’t that hard and since we’ve never accomplished this truth before… if we do it then there’s no way we don’t set another donation record in 2023 J.  $175K is a big number to beat.  We need EVERYONE to help! https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/6792/2023 Click Join Us, select your team, and complete set up.

Thanks in advance for all that you all do to make the Growler a success each year.  Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions and I can promise we’ll do what we can to make this the best event possible.  More words as we get closer, but in the meantime get ready… IT’S COMING!

Bill Speri
Growler Tournament Director

The “GrowlHer”, the women’s ONLY spinoff of the Growler!

We are excited to announce the “GrowlHer”, the women’s ONLY spinoff of the Growler!

 

The GrowlHer will be held on 13Aug from 3 -7 pm at Lake Park Swim Club. Women aged 21 years or older, who are pool/volleyball members at one of the participating Growler swim clubs OR women who have previously played in the Growler are eligible to participate in the GrowlHer.

We will be playing with the same rules as the Growler (with the exception that all participants are females). Basic rules are described below, but please also read the Growler rules: Growler Rules (growlervolleyball.com)

  • Consolation tournament
    • There will be an overall champion and a consolation winner
  • 3 games guaranteed per team
  • 5v5, games to 25
  • Can have as many team members on a team that you want

Registration for each player is $25; this player fee covers the volleyball registration fee, a GrowlHer t-shirt, and a wristband for beverages.

Team captains must register by 30Jun2022 by completing this formhttps://forms.gle/qbWdWnqWM2oDYPPg8.

Once you are awarded a team, Captains must send in player registration form, waivers, and total team fees by 10Jul2022. The total team registration fee should be submitted by Captains to Allison Kroeger via Venmo with GrowlHer as the subject line (@Allison-KROEGER-2).

Spectators are welcome! Please plan to come out and watch! Music will be playing throughout the event. Wristbands will be for sale for $5; additional GrowlHer and Growler t-shirts will also be sold for $15.

All donations will go to St Baldrick’s fight against childhood cancer.

NOTE: The Arepa Culture food truck will be at Lake Park with meals available for purchase separately.  Please come support this business as they support our fight against childhood cancer!  Neighbors are welcome 🙂

The plan derived by the GROWLeadERship team to create 4 new teams for the 2022 Growler. 

The decision to expand from 32 teams to 36 was the direct result of feedback from the various participating pools about the desire to include more people in the event.  The below approach was discussed multiple times among the leadership team and was considered the best approach that provided the most benefit given the time and space limitations that we do face.  If anyone has any questions or concerns please contact Bill Speri (wmsperi@gmail.com)… otherwise, here we go 🙂

  • The Growler will be adding 4 more teams in 2022
  • The 4 teams will be created via the following means:
    • 1 For each of the “Host Pools” (Springdale, Lake Park, and Greystone)
    • 1 From either..
      • one of the other area pools involved in the event (the desired result 🙂 ) OR a New Swim Club OR
      • the 2nd highest bidder from SARC, Lake Park, or Greystone if that bid exceeds the top bid from the non-Host pools.
  • Minimum Bid/Donation to secure a team is $1500 – The deadline will be June 1st to submit your “bids”.  By the end of that day each of the selected Teams will need to create their St Baldrick’s Page and have the $1500 donated on the page.
  • Greystone and Lake Park will run their separate process (however they set fit) to define their teams.
  • SARC will run the Springdale team creation and facilitate the selection of the “fourth” team.  At SARC…Scott Carboni (scot.carboni@gmail.com) will be the recipient of the “blind bids”.  Any potential new team Captain from anywhere but Lake Park and Greystone should send an email to Scott with their team name and “blind bid” amount.  On June 1st at 8am, Scott will inform the GROWLeadERship team who earned the SARC bid and who the Next top bid is for the potential 4th spot.  That bid will then be compared with the information from Lake Park and Greystone (top 2 bid amounts) to award the 4th team.
    • Example Scenarios to help color in the picture:
      • If the top 2 overall bids are from Harrington Grove, then Harrington Grove would get one new team. The other 3 would come from SARC, Lake Park, and Greystone.
      • If the 4th highest bidder comes from SARC, then SARC would get 2 new teams.
      • If the 4th highest bid is from Lake Park, then Lake Park would get 2 new teams.
      • If one of the top 4 bids is from Seven Oaks, then Seven Oaks would get 1 new team and the other 3 would come from SARC, Lake Park, and Greystone.
  • As stated before…
    • In Year 1 the members of the new teams need to be comprised 100% of members from the bid winning pool.  After Year 1, the new teams will function just like the “original 32” in terms of team composition.
    • The 4 new teams are slated to join the C and D divisions in Year 1 unless it clear from conversation with the Captain of the new teams that a different designation is warranted.  “Neutral party” Mark Williams will care for that determination.
    • The expectation is for the 4 new teams to “raise” $1500 just like all of the pre-existing teams (beyond the initial Bid made on June 1st).  Bid amount is only required to obtain the team in Year 1.

Please forward this email to anyone you feel might be interested in forming a new team… assuming they are not already on the Growler distro.  Again, we are looking forward to expanding our footprint and getting more people involved in both the Volleyball event but also expanding the number of people involved in raising money for St Baldrick’s.

Thanks in advance for your attention to this long and detail oriented email 🙂

Bill Speri
Growler Tournament Director

Hello Growler Sponsors!

The GROWLeadERship team just wanted to reach out to our previous sponsors to start
the conversation about Growler 2022. We once again wanted to issue a HUGE Thank you
for your past year’s assistance.

Looking back at 2021 we feel fortunate that the pandemic took a minor pause during the 4
weeks of the Growler, and that we were able to proceed as we have in years past. We
were able to set a record and raise over $130,000 for St Baldricks. That is truly an amazing
feat given the challenges of 2021 and as always we could not have done it without you!!
With that reality in mind we can’t to continue that momentum and build on our past
accomplishments to help find a cure for Childhood Cancer

We are reaching out now to see if you are interested in sponsoring the Growler in 2022.
The immediate “ask”  is simple… please let us know if you would be interested in
supporting the Growler this year or if you are unable to do so (no worries if that is the
case),

Please reply with your feedback to wmsperi@gmail.com by May 15th and if you know what
level you would like commit to (BUMP, SET, SPIKE, etc that would be great). NOTE: We
are formalizing the T-shirt and Admission benefits that go along with Sponsorship level to
reduce the confusion and make sure you all receive this addition token of our
appreciation.

o Bump Sponsors will receive 1 T-shirt and 4 admission bands
o Set Sponsors will receive – 2 T-shirts and 8 admission bands
o Spike Sponsors will receive – 4 T-shirts and 16 admission bands
o Partners should see Bill Speri for whatever you need 🙂

These items will be available for pick up at the Sponsor tent at SARC on all 4 weeks.

We are asking this year that ALL Sponsorship donations be made directly to the Growler’s
St Baldrick website if at all possible in order to reduce the admin delay in handling checks
etc… those donation can be made here:
https://www.stbaldricks.org/events/mypage/6792/2022

Thank you once again for your past and future support! We look forward to your response
and working with you in 2022.

See you on the BEACH!
Bill Speri- Tournament Director – 919-824-6767

FYI
Brooke Bryand will be assisting with the In-Kind Sponsors this year and “taking it over” in
2023
Kevin Hampton will be leading the Restaurant Sponsorship with assistance from Erin
Stanley and AP Blake in 2022

Growler 2022 kick off letter!

Can’t wait to get back at it in 2022 as we continue to support St Baldricks and the fight against Childhood Cancer.

Just to close out 2021… we set a record with $130,261 raised. We are the 2nd largest SB event in NC and 12th largest event in the US.  We’ve raised over $700,000 overall from past year campaigns.  The amount raised in 2021 was truly an amazing feat given the challenges presented by Covid. .  We also supported 2 local families in the fight against cancer.  The Volleyball is great, but I hope you all feel a sense of accomplishment in what this event has become beyond those amazingly enjoyable Tuesday nights.

With that in mind, GROWLeadERship has started looking at the event itself and ways we can continue to grow.  The major bottle neck has been the number of teams given the limiting factors of time and space.  Mark Williams and I have put our heads together and come up with a way to add 4 more teams in 2022.  These teams will be allocated to Springdale, Greystone, and Lake Park and also 1 more to the highest bidder from the member pools that do not directly host one of the Growler event.  Crabtree (Senior Growler host) was a consideration for the 4th automatic team “source”, but stated in the past they are content with their number of teams.  So, that allows for one extra team to be made available to all non-host pools (and we might even consider a new pool if one were to be interested).  Each pool will hold an auction among their members for the extra spot (GROWLeadERship Team will run the auction for non-host pools).  To the highest bidder goes “Team Captaincy” (NOTE: The minimum will be $1500 (Direct to St Baldricks)).  The plan will be to place 2 of the new teams in C and two teams in D for 2022.  We’ll work with the captains to make this as logical as possible.  For year 1 New teams should be composed 100% of members from the sponsoring pool.  Beyond year 1 they can fall into the same rules governing all the other teams that we clarified last year.

The other major area of concern as we grow is ensuring we have the manpower required to pull off the event.  To that end we have decided to add a 5th variable to the Tournament GPI (Growler Performance Indicator)… Volunteer Hours.
See below for difference btwn 2021 and 2022:

Basically,
2021– 79% of points were driven off how good you are (Div, W/L, and Pt Diff)  and 21% on Money Raised
2022 Proposed – 65% of points were driven off how good you are (Div, W/L, and Pt Diff)  and 17% on Money Raised and 17% for Volunteering

To see how this might have affected 2021 we pulled the volunteer hours we have on record and plugged them into the new formula.  This is what it would have done to the seeding:

We will capture volunteer hours via the same method used in the past, but in 2022 we will need the teams to ensure they are using the tool to make sure their hours are logged and therefore used in this equation.
The one additional change also displayed in the screen shot above is to award the Top 2 fundraising teams with the #1 and #2 seed (automatically).  We are hoping adding the 2 seed to the mix will get more teams into the fundraising spirit as our “rabbit” #1 team can sometime get too far ahead to drive people to get one of the automatic bids:)

Again, a summary of the changes:

  • Add 4 teams.  Increasing  the # of teams from 32 to 36 (2 additional in Div C and Div D)
  • Add Volunteer Hours as part of the Points metrics for Ranking in Final Championship seed.
  • Top 2 Fundraising teams will get the #1 and #2 seed
  • Championship Night is still a 32 team single elimination format.
    —The bottom 8 ranked teams will have to “Play In” a Monday night match to make the 29-32 seeds of Tues Championship Night.  Water and Beer only that night – 1 hour to complete

Other Discussion Points that we’ll be sure to focus on in 2022:

  • Revise the Raffle
  • Formalize Sponsorship package (to include T-shirts and Admission Bands included)
  • New Shirt Manufacturer?
  • More speakers at the event
  • Female Growler?
  • Take a look at Admission and Registration costs ($80) as well as Team Donation Minimums ($1500)

Collectively we feel the train continues to run smoothly and we’ll be looking to just tweak a few things from years past.  Our goal is to continue to grow the event year over year and provide for St Baldricks.

Thanks!

Bill Speri
Tournament Director

Championship Night Details

It All Comes Down to Tuesday night’s Championship Finale.  

This night will be special.

We have already exceeded last year’s St Baldrick’s fund raising efforts with over $50K on the SB site and at least $16K in event profits ($66K total).  Awesome job.  We have now raised over a quarter million for children’s cancer research.  If we exceed $77K this year, we will earn the #5 highest SB fund raising event in North Carolina.
Sand Diggers Raise the most money for St Baldrick’s and have picked the #2 Seed to play in the Championship bracket.  The Schedule has been updated   http://growlervolleyball.com/2017-schedule-and-standings/     Games Start at 5:30 Tuesday  Be sure to check the schedule so you know what time and court you play.  Please report  to your court at least 15 minutes prior to your scheduled time and let’s stay ahead of schedule. 
Shave Schedule-  We will start Shaves at 6 PM.  Please sign up if you are Shaving.  Be sure to check your game schedule for timing of your have.   https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AQEaM7lwwcGTF7CcuWUe7nXe629xOOAjlIVfzidIQ_8/edit#gid=1466623429

Volunteer-  We only have a few people signed up to work Tuesday and need help in several areas.  We expect everyone to do their part to pitch in and help.     Please sign up.  https://growlervolleyball.com/volunteer/

Parking-  Please Only Park in Recommended Parking Areas.  We STRONGLY discourage parking within 150′ of any stores next door.  You can park behind Food Lion or  we have approval to park at Little Pro Academy  just a couple blocks away and less than a 5 min walk..  Check the Map for other preferred areas>>>   http://growlervolleyball.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Growler-Parking-updated-2016.pdf

Slushies and Gatorade for Sawyer-  The Growler is honoring Sawyer Powell. Since his was diagnosed with a brain tumor, he has had four surgeries, three rounds of radiation, immunotherapy treatment, and hyperbaric oxygen treatment. We will be out selling slushies and Gatorade. You can also visit this site sexybeth1248. Please bring some extra cash to support his family.  Raleigh Brawl, Sand Diggers, PepsiCo and Growler have been supporting them each night and will provide them funds to help support their numerous medical expenses.
Raffle-  We have lots of Great Raffle Prizes-  $5/ ticket or 5 for $20.   We will be selling these at the gate when you walk in.  You can make checks to St Baldrick’s Foundation. 

Sponsors-  Please visit some of our sponsors tents and tables.  Some are doing drawings throughout the night.  Go online now to win a “BIG GREEN EGG” grill package from Campbell Orthodontics.    http://growlervolleyball.com/?p=2659

Growler Gear- We’ve printed additional long sleeve shirts and XL and XXL short sleeve shirts.  Come by the “Growler Gear” tent early to get yours before they run out.   We also have a $ 5 OFF Clearance special  on KID size shirts and Hats ..   Cash, checks or credit cards accepted 
“Show us your UBER”  contest-  Show us your Uber/Lyft at the admissions table and you will be entered to win one of two set of 4 tickets to the Carolina Hurricanes AND get your ride there and back paid for! Sponsored by Cristine Allison, Fonville Morisey/Drum Team Realtors. 

 
INVITE YOUR FRIENDS–  Admission is  $15 -ages 21 +(Beer and food included), $10 -age 14-20, $5 for kids 13 and under.  Cash, Checks, and CREDIT CARDS accepted.