Review & Photos by Dan Rich
A fabulous turnout of 143 members of the insurance industry, attended this year’s Tri-Association Winter Extravaganza at the Sheraton Hartford South in Rocky Hill on January 12, 2016.
The Extravaganza was tri-sponsored by the Hartford Pond, the Hartford Association of Insurance Professionals, and the Connecticut Insurance Marketing Association.
The Hartford Pond’s Past Most Loyal Gander Bob Partridge was the evening’s Master of Ceremonies, and after he led the Pledge of Allegiance, and introduced the leaders of the three sponsoring organizations who in turn introduced their officers. Pond MLG Craig Sikora led a “Happy Birthday” serenade to Jerry Hale, CIMA’s Tom Crawford spoke of his organization’s long support of PAL (the Police Athletic League), and HAIP’s Carolee LaMarre asked Sandi Tilley to lead us in the Collect – a prayer for “peace, contentment, harmony and understanding”.
After dinner, we “passed the hat” to collect cash for PAL, and the amount was matched by CIMA. Next up was our entertainment, and we were totally enthralled by magician and mind reader Jim Sisti. He was just incredible! In an audience partition act, he entertained us with dazzling array of card and rope tricks. He flung a deck of cards upwards and made a pre-chosen card stick on the ceiling. He cut ropes into pieces and rejoined them. He restored ripped up cards and made them re-appear fully formed inside a picture frame. He performed the “Rising Card” trick, fabulous mind-reading tricks, recited words on random pages of random books selected by our guests, he made cards magically jump in and out of glasses of water, and he smashed his palms on upturned paper cups that hid a large spike underneath.
The evening ended with the Wine raffle, where 5 lucky winners each walked away with 13 bottles of wine. The night’s 50/50 drawing was $600 each, and the house’s share was donated to PAL.
We are very grateful to MLG Craig Sikora, HAIP President Carolee LaMarre, CIMA President Tom Crawford, and their respective teams for putting together such a terrific evening.
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