The Cortez Area Chamber of Commerce is gearing up for its Casino Royale banquet on Saturday, its third annual banquet held in a casino setting.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the first year the citizen\/business of the year won\u2019t be announced at the casino-themed banquet. The chamber plans to hand out the awards later this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always done the awards,\u201d said Dena Guttridge, the chamber\u2019s executive director. \u201cBut the casino night has just gotten too big to do both.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are hoping to create an entirely new event created around the awards,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The banquet will be held Saturday at 6 p.m. downstairs at Fiesta Mexicana.<\/p>\n
The casino night, which this year has a James Bond theme, has been wildly successful, Guttridge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe usually average between 150 and 200 people,\u201d Guttridge said. \u201cNearly everyone dresses up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previous themes have been \u201cTombstone\u201d and \u201cSpeak Easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guttridge said that handing out the awards during the casino night became distracting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fun and games kind of took over,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Those who participate in the \u201cgambling\u201d earn tickets to put in for drawings for donated items.<\/p>\n
The event is also good for networking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all about creating relationships and networking at this event,\u201d Guttridge said.<\/p>\n
Proceeds from the event go to support chamber programs, including Leadership Montezuma.<\/p>\n
Tickets cost $35 each, but Guttridge said there are $5-off coupons on the chamber\u2019s Facebook page.<\/p>\n
With tickets, you get $50 in gaming chips and dinner. There\u2019s also a cash bar.<\/p>\n
Games played at the casino night will be: black jack, Texas Holdem\u2019 and Bingo.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have never done Bingo before,\u201d Guttridge said.<\/p>\n
In addition, the event will feature local celebrity dealers and cocktail waitresses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really a chance to see and be seen,\u201d Guttridge said. \u201cI love this event. It is so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those \u201cgamblers\u201d will be competing for a wide range of donated prizes, such as lodging, Navajo pots, barbecue sets and lots of martini glasses.<\/p>\n
Area businesses donated nearly $3,000 in prizes.<\/p>\n
For more information: 565-3414.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Citizen\/business of the year will be announced at a later date<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-115076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115076"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=115076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}