CASL 40th Birthday Party Recap

CASL 40th Birthday Party Recap

Written by Kieran Downey, CASL Intern

This past Saturday, March 15^th, CASL held its 40^th Anniversary Celebration at WRAL Soccer Center. The event was a chance to celebrate the club’s history, to thank all the members for their support over the years, and to look forward at what the future has in store for CASL.  Though the wind tried to blow out the candles a bit early on the celebration, the beautiful 70 degree and sunny weather prevailed to provide the perfect atmosphere.

The festivities kicked off at 10am and ran strong till 2pm.  A few of our wonderful sponsors, fellow community members came out in full force to help celebrate with CASL.  Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bruegger’s Bagels, Carolina RailHawks, Crown Trophy, Top Form Soccer, Miracle Feet, and the EF Foundation for Foreign Study all participated in the celebration.  They provided guests with fun activities, prizes, and also promoted their fantastic organizations and causes.  CASL’s mascot Cleats the Dog was also on hand to pose for pictures and to keep the party going.

The Pit Authentic Barbecue was on site to sell their delicious North Carolina style barbecue.  The smell from their whole hog, pit-cooked barbecue wafted throughout WRAL, and I’m sure it rumbled the stomachs of many out at the park.  If you didn’t get a chance to try some on Saturday, I highly recommend that you get out to The Pit soon to see that North Carolina barbecue is the real deal. 

The celebration also featured a bounce house, courtesy of Inflate-A-Party, which kids went bonkers for.  Kids lined up several times to expend their seemingly endless energy jumping in and sliding down the bounce house, much to their parents’ delight.

 

The event culminated with CASL board member John Dalpe giving a brief speech on the club’s 40 years, a cake cutting ceremony featuring sheet cakes donated by CASL sponsor Harris Teeter, and a check presentation to the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.  Earlier this year CASL raised over $10,000 (in reality it was more than $14,000 if you add the proceeds from the silent auction we hosted on site plus the merchandise sales from Kay Yow Cancer Fund that would not have happened without this event) for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund through the Play 4Kay 4v4 Soccer Tournament, which the club proudly presented to Kay Yow representatives at the celebration in the form of a huge check.  The $10,000 raised adds to the $3.8 million raised by Play 4Kay since 2007 that helps fight women’s cancer by funding scientific research.

The event was a hit, and after all the hard work put in by the CASL staff and volunteers to get it organized, it was great to see everyone out there enjoying themselves.  Thanks to all those who came out to celebrate CASL’s 40^th, we hope you had a good time.  CASL has had an incredible 40 years of providing youth soccer to the area, and we can’t wait to see what the next 40 years has in store for CASL!