Athletic Foundation Moves Gala Downtown

The Chatham Athletic Foundation (CAF) will host their annual fundraising gala a little closer to home this year.

Paul Ivans, the president of CAF, and Jen Marshall of CAF went before the Council in April to request permission to hold their annual gala at Reasoner Park in downtown Chatham on Sept. 22. The council formally approved CAF's request on Monday, June 25.

"We still want to continue our presence in the community and have our event every September, but given the economy and the impact on friends and neighbors, we didn’t want to do a full gala," Ivans told Chatham Patch. "But we still wanted to do a formal event."

Ivans told the council the event would be "a less formal, less expensive, less big, less fancy" version of , which have been held at the Madison Hotel in Morris Township.

Reasoner Park, Marshall said, "is such a charming part of our town, it really captures the essence of our community."

The event will go from 6 to 11 p.m. and will be limited to people 21 and older. Marshall said they do plan to serve alcohol.

Coordinating the event has taken significant effort. CAF representatives met with the and other borough officials to discuss the proper permits needed for the event.

"We want to have a band, tent, foods, alcohol," Ivans said. These require coordinating delivery and set-up of tables, chairs, food, drink, musicians and more.

CAF also had to arrange access to bathrooms, noise control, police presence, coordinating with the and a plan for cleaning up the park when the event ends with the borough.

The date of the gala is also the same day as the Green Fair of the Chathams, which takes place in the morning of Saturday, Sept. 22. Representatives of CAF met with Green Fair organizers to discuss arrangements for setting up one event while another ends.