Pine Island Superstar cancelled for this year; will return in 2014
To the editor:
We have had many inquiries from the people of Pine Island about the 2013 Pine Island Superstar. This e-mail is to inform you and the people of Pine Island that we had to cancel the Pine Island Superstar for 2013. As you know we had set out to plan a Superstar for 2013 that would have been bigger and better and raised more money for charities than last year’s event. I am sorry that things just did not work out for this year and we still plan to be back in 2014 with a bigger and better show.
The Superstar Committee started early this fall with the plans to expand each of the preliminary shows with more talent and more attendance. We were working on plans for an outside semi-final and final show to accommodate more audience, and had contacted sponsors to cover those extra costs. The majority of the preliminary show host establishments had committed to a date and plans were starting to come together.
Three weeks ago we received an e-mail from the “tax exempt partner” that they no longer wanted to be involved with the Superstar program. I don’t fully know the reason for this decision, but it put an end to the program for this year. Because all of the money raised from the Pine Island Superstar contest was donated to island charities it is important to have a “tax exempt” status to allow those donations to be tax deductible. With so little time before our scheduled January shows, there wasn’t enough time to find another “tax exempt” partner and get our advertising and promotion out in time for the shows.
Last year the Pine Island Superstar raised $12,500 for Pine Island charities through “quarters” used to vote for performers in 11 shows held on the island. We apologize to our island charities that we donated to last year, The Pine Island Food Pantry, F.I.S.H. and the Feed Our Families program. We ask the Pine Island community to be more generous than usual to these worthy causes to replace our donations. We will be back in 2014 with a bigger more exciting program and stronger partner that will again help support our island charities with the excitement of the Superstar!
Tom Gauthier
Pine Island Superstar Chairman