Duck Creek Rally
                             September 26th – 29th, 2019

Our last rally of the year came off without a hitch.  The Duck Creek Resort is beautiful with manicured lawns and concrete, full hookup sites.  Our meeting room overlooked the pool and the pond and was just right for our group of 41 members and guests.

 Rallymasters Terri Cline and Jerry and Sue Woller did an excellent job of providing the entertainment for the weekend as well as all the “helpers” it takes to put the rally on.  Thank You!   Attendees this time were Bearse, Baker, Bates, Bird, Cline, Chubb, Conrad, Daubresse, Dingman, Hamlin, Martin, Miller, O’Bee, Payne, Sheren, Stano, Wheeldon, Woller and Zoutendam.  Also attending were guests Mike and Kay Cichon, Greg and Marian Oswalt (Now Members!) and new member Lark Roberts that Kathy O’Bee met at the restaurant and subsequently has joined.  Former members, Karen and Sam Joseph joined us for happy hour and dinner and it was great to see them again.  Unfortunately, Srokas and Hollister were missed due to illness but we’ll look for them in June.

Upon arrival Thursday, we had our usual happy hour before heading to the Handsome Hobo restaurant for an excellent dinner.  Lots of food, fun and smiles there! 
Friday morning, we met for coffee and rolls before going our separate ways exploring the many sights in the area.  Lake Michigan entertained us with some giant rollers from the storm and winds the previous night and others visited the LST and submarine museum and historic houses.  Our potluck dinner followed happy hour that night with chicken and ribs provided from the Pekadill’s restaurant and wine tasting by Jack.  They were delicious and everyone stuffed themselves silly!

Saturday after coffee and more donuts, our annual business meeting and election of officers took place.  After a hard fought campaign, Lynn Sheren was elected to be the new Vice President with all other offices remaining the same.  Ed Bearse – President, Marcia Bird – Treasurer, Anne Bearse – Secretary, Steve Aller – National Director, Ken Hamlin – Alt. National Director and Tom Bird – VP Communications.

Our local charity for this year was Pioneer Resources, and Jill Bonthuis gave us an excellent presentation about their help with people having disabilities.  Our individual donations totaled over $700 and we were happy to give them a hand.

Following the close of business, we again went exploring or helped set up for the Silent Auction in the afternoon.  We had over six tables of member donations to sell which brought in over $700 for the club! Thank you all for helping to clean out or replenish our hoard of little used “stuff”!   After the successful auction, we helped Kathy O’Bee celebrate her birthday with a huge cake and Maggie Chubb brought out her three tubs of ice cream paid for by our name tag fines over the year.  Way to go Maggie!  Did I mention that our club likes to eat????

Sunday morning concluded the rally with more coffee and rolls and goodbyes and hugs until next year.  We’ll look forward to a Winter luncheon in February for the Florida snowbirds and another for the Arizona birds.  Thank you rallymasters for a fun weekend and we’ll look forward to June in the UP!
Travel safe in the meantime!