NFL lockout kills Packer-basketball fundraiser

• Packer bball game cancelled

The NFL lockout means Packer players will not come to River Falls for a fundraising game planned for April 17.

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Event organizer Julie Larson says she’s disappointed to report that the National Football League’s lockout forces the River Falls High School senior-class party-planning committee to cancel its Packer-basketball fundraising game scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday, April 17.

The committee delighted in learning that such a game could happen in River Falls.

The Packers! Wow, committee members thought. Who wouldn’t love to see some of their beloved Super Bowl champs right here in River Falls?

Larson suffered the first disappointment just after announcing the game the first time.

The committee had to reschedule the game from April 2 to April 17 because someone in the Packers’ front office made a mistake.

They didn’t realize the players would “report” later in the year since the Super Bowl extended their 2010-2011 season into February.

Contacts told Larson at the time that the lockout “probably” would not affect the rescheduled game.

The committee got a second blow last week when it got word that the lockout prevented current players from appearing in the game. It considered holding a Packer alumni game instead.

Then at Monday night’s committee meeting, the members decided not to make a substitution.

If people came expecting to see that season’s players, Larson and the other planners didn’t want them to be disappointed.

“With the change in the first date and now the lockout, what next?” she said. “We felt it would be best to refund the tickets in full.”

People who’ve bought tickets must present them to get a refund but can do that two ways: Come to the high school commons between noon and 2 p.m. April 17 or send them along with a self-addressed stamped envelope to the attention of the Senior Class Party Association, P.O. Box 114, River Falls, 54022.

Larson said the committee remains grateful to the businesses that helped them by offering the tickets for sale, including WESTconsin Credit Union, Associated Dentists, River Falls State Bank and Arrow Building Center. She said the committee is also grateful to all the people who’d been willing to play on a local team against the Packers.

She said planning for this year’s senior-class party is nearly finished and that planning for the next one starts in June.

Though the vision was that the Packers basketball fundraiser would raise money for this and future years’ parties, Larson said the party must go on.

Most agree it is a magical and memorable night for the seniors. Many consider it to be seniors’ final social event as a high school class.

She says she might attempt to organize a fundraising Packer-basketball game in 2012. “I would be willing to try next year. Why not? It could only get better, right?”

Tags: education, k-12, sports, prep, proam