Columbia Gator Club^®  most recent event:

International Gator Day (IGD) 2008

May 17, 2008

This year the Columbia Gator Club® volunteered at the Riverbanks Zoo here in Columbia.   We all arrived early in the morning and received our "Gators At Work" t-shirts.  Our group swelled to about 25 adults and 7 children.  Our contact at the zoo, Kim Benson, met us and explained what we would be doing that day.  They had two jobs for us and we were eager to get started.  The first job was to paint park benches and the second to clean the glass and displays of the small mammal/ gorilla exhibits.  Mrs. Benson gave each of us five "safari bucks" to be used anywhere in the zoo.  As we divided into two groups to head to our appointed chores she also mentioned there was a surprise for us later in the day.  We would see the surprise when we all met back together at the Alligator exhibit for lunch.

The original plan was for us to work from 9am until 3pm with a break for lunch at 1130m.  By the time 11am rolled around both teams were almost finished their appointed tasks.  Benches were freshly painted,  the glass was cleaned and surfaces cleared of dirt and cobwebs.  As we came back together near the Gator we were shown the wonderful sign the Zoo had placed in front of the exhibit for us.  A very nice surprise indeed! We all spent some time watching the Gator sunbathing before heading to the Kenya Cafe for some good food.

After lunch some of us decided we would continue to help out the Zoo by helping clean up the very large parking lot.  Off we walked picking up countless old cigarette butts, plastic straws and other assorted trash.  Again it did not take long for this merry band of Gators to clean up the place!  With all the work done the time had come to relax.  Some of our group headed home while others re-entered the zoo to have a look around.  It was a great day filled with hard work but plenty of fun and laughter. 

Thanks to all of you who came out and participated in International Gator Day 2008! 

May 2-4 Florida Baseball in Columbia!

Our boys came into Columbia and won their first game 9-3 but dropped the next two nights to the Gamecocks 5-6 on Saturday and 6-9 on Sunday.

It was great to see the boys back in Columbia and this time with their new coach, Kevin O'Sullivan.  They kept both games on Saturday and Sunday close and had many chances to pull away with the lead.  Sunday a lot of changes were made with the UF pitchers but none seemed were able to shut down Carolina.  They just couldn't seem to get a streak going and had some errors that hurt them badly.    Regardless we are proud of the effort as we all know they played their hearts out.

2007 Annual Picnic and a Float trip!

Aug. 25, 2007

This year our kickoff picnic had a little twist.  We had a bunch of Gators take a float trip down the Saluda River.  They gathered around 10am and were taken to a drop off point up river from the park.  Two hours later our fellow gators started showing up at the picnic area.  The day was slightly overcast but still nice and warm.  The water was cold and refreshing.  Other then some rocky parts the float trip seemed a success.  

Once most of the floaters returned we started in on a nice sub lunch.  There were a lot of side dishes provided by our fellow Gators. It was good to see everyone again.  We were finally able to sit down and catch up with each others lives.  It was a great time and the perfect way to kick off the football season.  We look forward to seeing you all again at the first football game coming up next weekend.