It was a much sunnier day for Aubrey’s 380 Area Chamber of Commerce casino night fundraiser than the original icy Jan. 24 date.
In addition to an evening of fun, the Chamber recognized its Person of the Year, longtime Chamber member Melissa Geiger, and its Business of the Year, Trinity River BBQ, owned by Derek and Sarah Lomas.
“You have a lot of people here that really care about each other and how every business does, and we're just here to support each other,” Chamber President Shannon Black said.
The last casino night hosted by the Chamber was in 2023, and after a long hi- atus, the Chamber’s biggest fundraiser, its casino night returned with a more elevated theme.
“We took a lot of notes and a lot of takeaways from that one, and so this one we wanted to just level up, and we leveled up,” Chamber Executive Director Jana Temple said.
The goal was to surpass their previous attendance of 100 people, Temple said, and within the first two hours, they had sold 92 prepaid tickets and several walk-ins.
That included some of the Chamber’s newest members, such as Sherry Smalling and Kelli Whatley, who came with their husbands.
Smalling was motivated to come after her first Chamber meeting last month, she said.
“[It’s] just an opportunity to meet some neighbors in the town we now live in,” she said. “Just hoping to socialize and meet some people.”
Smalling wowed the players at a game of craps after rolling four sevens in a row, as another player said in shock, “That just doesn’t happen!”
It was also an all-handson- deck event, with members helping to distribute tickets to guests, take drink orders, clean, deliver prizes for the raffle and silent auction, and check on attendees as they played poker, craps, roulette and other traditional casino games.
Because it was a fundraiser, the poker chips were played for fun and not kept; however, the more the players won, the more tickets they received to enter the raffle drawing.
The prizes were donated by Chamber members and local businesses and included a margarita and slush maker, an oil change deal, Dallas Stars tickets and an air fryer.
At the end of the night, the Chamber raffled off the prizes and determined the winners of the silent auction.
Courtney Hopper, the big poker tournament winner, competed and won $500.
Bud Baker, a board member, and his wife, Brenda Baker, hosted the event at their venue Oak + Ivy in Aubrey.
For them, this was a great chance to bring the community together.
“We're so excited to have the opportunity to host it, and we're thrilled to have the community come in,” Brenda said.
Before the ice storm hit Texas, many businesses closed due to weather concerns.
Bud and Brenda said they had to act quickly to move the date.
“Fortunately, all of our vendors were able to step up and change to this date, and we were fortunate that we had the day open for them as well, so it just all worked out,” Bud said.
Black was grateful for the way the evening turned out.
“Aubrey is growing, but we still have that smalltown feel,” she said. “We're still a community that likes to support small businesses.”
