8th annual Taste 4 Los Al
returns to Rossmoor bigger than ever

The Great Taste of '08 is attended by over 3,000. Well over $250,000 in funds are raised.

The 8th Taste For Los Al returned to Rossmoor in big-time style, attracting over 3,000 attendees and raising well over $250,000 for for Los Al HS activities and facilities.

The event was held on October 18th at The Shops at Rossmoor.

This year's Taste was the grand finale of a week's worth of events celebrating the 40th anniversary of Los Alamitos High School. (Okay, technically Los Al began in 1967 with a limited schedule at what is now McAuliffe Middle School. But the present high school campus was opened for classes in September 1968, so work with us -- it was a good excuse for a party.)

The first big event of the week was the first-ever Los Alamitos High School Hall of Fame banquet on October 15, , and that was followed the next day by the first Reunion Week Golf Classic at Old Ranch Golf Club.

The Reunion Week activities concluded with The 8th Taste For Los Al which continued to grow at a 25-plus % rate despite nagging thoughts about a potential recession.

The final attendance was 3,053 (up from 2300 in 2007). Final count for tickets sold was 3,463 (up from almost 2,800 in 2007). Final auction accounting numbers from four booster groups are still incomplete, but using past average dollars raised per table) the event gross revenues should be around $270,000. Of that amount, Los Al High School booster clubs will make at least $149,000. The event ticket sales totaled just over $155,000 with booster clubs and activitiies having over $77,000 go back to them (see photo). The remainder of the ticket sale revenues goes to OUR Los Al which will pay expenses (around $40,000) and the balance goes into a fund to help school facilties, in particular a fund to build an all-weather track. [With this year's revenue OUR Los Al should have close to $200,000 and the track team has an additional approximate $40,000 stashed away. This combined with the district's committment to match those monies dollar for dollar means we now have almost $500,000 set aside for a track. Just this past week we asked a track contractor to come back with solid numbers to install an all-weather track, to see how much more we need to raise.]

The auction tent was 210 feet long (50 feet longer than in 2007) and somehow still seemed crowded. For the most part things went well in there, (but we do hope that the person who walked off with the bid sheet for the Caribbean getaway can surreptitiously get the sheet to us so we'll give it to the right club. That's almost $2,000 that could have gone to that club.

We have had almost unanimous approval for having the event at The Shops at Rossmoor. Yes, there is still room for improvement, and yes, some restaurants ran out of food early on (although at least six were still serving at 9:15 and at least five - Fish Company, Steve's BBQ, Islands, Kobe, and the Long Beach Firemen's Grill were serving almost right up to the end. Anyway, with a growth of over 25% in attendance and dollars raised - especially during these economic circumstances - we must be doing something right.

A couple interesting numbers to throw at you:

• The Original Fish Company served over 70 gallons of chowder.
• Mahe served 2,750 pieces of sushi
• California Pizza Kitchen went through 180 pizzas in three hours.
• Rubio's served over 1500 samples of their fresh Mexican fare, including lobster tacos.

Over forty restaurants have now done their part to help the community. It's time for the rest of you to do your part and reward these restaurants by giving them some business and thanking them for doing the event.

The very first Taste for Los Al, which was put together by local parents who have or had children in the Los Al District, was held in 2001 at the Rossmoor Center, and the event was attended by over 600 persons and raised over $20,000 to support Los Al High activities and facilities. Soon after the event, the Rossmoor Center began its many renovations, and the Taste found a new location at the Los Alamitos Corporate Center where it continued to grow. Last year's Taste was attended by over 2,300 persons who enjoyed the offerings of 42 local restaurants and caterers, while raising over $232,000 for Los Alamitos High School booster clubs and facilities.

In 2007 Griffin booster clubs received over $149,000 (almost $70,000 from their share of ticket sales, and over $80,000 from silent auctions, raffles, 50/50 drawings, etc.). 17 booster clubs participated in the Silent Auction which had 83 tables.

After expenses (about $40,000 last year) The remaining funds went to OUR Los Al (Organizations United to Renew Los Alamitos HS), the sponsoring non-profit. OUR Los Al handles securing the permits, restaurants, equipment, supplies and helping coordinate booster clubs involvement.

Besides hosting the Taste, OUR Los Al also has a goal of helping the high school improve its facilities. In the past year it has contracted with architects and civil engineers to survey and put together a master plan for athletic facilities at the high school. IN addition, last year OUR Los Al donated funds to help buy a new gym scoreboard, and has helped fund and coordinate improvements to the soccer, lacrosse and softball fields. OUR Los Al's biggest priority is help fund an all-weather track at the high school.

The 42 restaurants who participated do it for free, partly for marketing value but also as a way to help out a large group of their most loyal customers.

"By happenstance or whatever, this is a special community," said Larry Strawther, the President of OUR Los Al. "With the military bases on the east and the freeway and river on the west, we're virtually an island. Plus, we're a one-high school district, and all the parents and kids have pretty much met each other at youth events like AYSO, NJB, baseball, or scouts or elementary school carnivals or auctions and by the time we have kids at the high school, most of us know each other very well. Throw in that statistically families stay here longer than anywhere else in Southern California and we have a huge number of second and third generation kids who grew up here and returned to raise their own kids. All those factors help give us a small town flavor and leads to a very tight community and a willingness on the part of parents, grandparents and alums and parents of alums to want to help out a lot."

The Taste is just one example of this attitude. In eight years it has helped the Los Al High activities groups raise over one million dollars.