GLAMARAMA 2013
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Rally returned to Goshen, Indiana, having been continuously held in Berrien Springs, MI since 1992! We arrived at the beautiful Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds which will be home to GLAMA for this year, 2014 and 2015. The beautiful facilities were complemented with a large supply of full hookup sites and 50 Amp electric service. A sunny day welcomed twenty coaches including Kathy and Dick Montgomery, Anne and Ed Bearse, Tom Bird, Maggie and Rod Chubb, Vicky and George Daubresse, Shirley and Bob Dingman, Sharon and Don Eversmann, Char and Larry Jacobson, Karen and Sam Joseph, Anne and Dick Joyner, Mary Ellen and John Kaiser, Jane and Bill Kirschke, Carol and Al Kloha, Barb and Larry Vanderburg, Simone and John Verellen, Liz and Bob Webber, Dorothy and Bruce Wierman, Jeanne and Don Rypma, Ilene and Richard Ikens and Ginny McGrath.
After a quick meeting in the carpeted air conditioned seminar rooms to assign our duties for the seminar monitoring, it was off to, you guessed it, Happy Hour with lots of snackaroos! We returned to our coaches for dinner and then on to the entertainment with Sgt. Daniel Clark, “The Singing Trooper”. He retired from the Massachusetts State Police after the Marine Corps and is a motivational singer of partriotic songs, broadway, Elvis, Irish songs and a moving tribute to our armed forces. Prior to that, our group flags/banners were presented and we displayed our beautiful new banner – photos will appear with this post. Super job, Dick Montgomery!
Thursday
Thursday arrived with a bit of moisture. Many succumbed to the donuts and coffee to get us on a sugar high. Seminars were running all day long and so were the rain storms! Many took refuge in the vendors building much to the delight of the vendors and many dodged raindrops heading for the new coaches on display. Our Chapter Fair was well received with the help of Anne Joyner and Dorothy Wierman and of course, our new flag.
This was our potluck supper night and business meeting. After stuffing ourselves silly, we settled down to the chapter business and elections. More of this will appear in the Secretary’s report but most office positions stayed the same except that your new Vice President is John Verellen, replacing Tom Bird who is now VP Communications and Anne Bearse taking over the Chaplins duties. Congratulations John and Anne!! Our FMCA National President, Charlie Adcock and Senior Vice President Jon Walker stopped by and gave us a quick inspirational speech guaranteeing that we’ll increase from 460 coaches this year to 600 coaches next year!
Friday
Friday arrived with threatening dark rainy clouds again! The donuts and coffee got us in gear again and on to seminars and venders booths. Seminar Chairman Dick Montgomery did a terrific job of handling the seminars and his efforts are greatly appreciated by all of us! That night, many opted for the $6 chicken dinner put on by the VFW at their hall. From what I heard, they were swamped with business but eventually I’m told, all customers were fed and left happy. The entertainment followed and a head count in the auditorium showed that almost a third of the attendees were First Timers! Yes!!! The entertainment was a musical keyboard player and singer, Sarah Getto, who was born blind but went on to earn high awards for composing and playing music on the guitar, bass and autoharp. She sang Pop, Country and Gospel and really put on a professional show! She commented that being 29 years old, she needs a boy friend and doesn’t care what he looks like! That broke up the crowd!
Saturday
The clouds finally cleared and that big yellow ball appeared in the sky – Horraaaaay!! More seminars, crafts and last minute shopping! We had a big turnout at happy hour with many guests enjoying our snacks and friendship. Karen and Sam Joseph brought in new members, Iggy and Cindy Konrad from Big Rapids! If you get a chance, send them a quick WELCOME at ikonradrv@gmail.com. After breaking for a quick dinner, it was off to the entertainment with the Harbor Lights singers. They put on a fantastic Be-Bop show bringing back many memories for those going back to the 50’s and 60’s. Of course, most of us were too young to remember, har, har…….but many seemed to recognize them anyway! No one from our group won the $3000 grand prize so we’ll have to have a chat with Bob Dingman who was pulling out those drawing tickets!
So, there you have it. Sunday morning was bright and sunny for our return and GLAMARAMA 2013 is history. Thank you all for your time and effort in monitoring the seminars, registration, chapter fair, crafts and the many other activities I may have missed. Special thanks go to Kathy and Dick Montgomery for all those long hours on this project.
Happy travels over the Winter and we’ll look forward to seeing you all again in May 2014!
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Great Lakes Area Motorcoach Rally returned to Goshen, Indiana, having been continuously held in Berrien Springs, MI since 1992! We arrived at the beautiful Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds which will be home to GLAMA for this year, 2014 and 2015. The beautiful facilities were complemented with a large supply of full hookup sites and 50 Amp electric service. A sunny day welcomed twenty coaches including Kathy and Dick Montgomery, Anne and Ed Bearse, Tom Bird, Maggie and Rod Chubb, Vicky and George Daubresse, Shirley and Bob Dingman, Sharon and Don Eversmann, Char and Larry Jacobson, Karen and Sam Joseph, Anne and Dick Joyner, Mary Ellen and John Kaiser, Jane and Bill Kirschke, Carol and Al Kloha, Barb and Larry Vanderburg, Simone and John Verellen, Liz and Bob Webber, Dorothy and Bruce Wierman, Jeanne and Don Rypma, Ilene and Richard Ikens and Ginny McGrath.
After a quick meeting in the carpeted air conditioned seminar rooms to assign our duties for the seminar monitoring, it was off to, you guessed it, Happy Hour with lots of snackaroos! We returned to our coaches for dinner and then on to the entertainment with Sgt. Daniel Clark, “The Singing Trooper”. He retired from the Massachusetts State Police after the Marine Corps and is a motivational singer of partriotic songs, broadway, Elvis, Irish songs and a moving tribute to our armed forces. Prior to that, our group flags/banners were presented and we displayed our beautiful new banner – photos will appear with this post. Super job, Dick Montgomery!
Thursday
Thursday arrived with a bit of moisture. Many succumbed to the donuts and coffee to get us on a sugar high. Seminars were running all day long and so were the rain storms! Many took refuge in the vendors building much to the delight of the vendors and many dodged raindrops heading for the new coaches on display. Our Chapter Fair was well received with the help of Anne Joyner and Dorothy Wierman and of course, our new flag.
This was our potluck supper night and business meeting. After stuffing ourselves silly, we settled down to the chapter business and elections. More of this will appear in the Secretary’s report but most office positions stayed the same except that your new Vice President is John Verellen, replacing Tom Bird who is now VP Communications and Anne Bearse taking over the Chaplins duties. Congratulations John and Anne!! Our FMCA National President, Charlie Adcock and Senior Vice President Jon Walker stopped by and gave us a quick inspirational speech guaranteeing that we’ll increase from 460 coaches this year to 600 coaches next year!
Friday
Friday arrived with threatening dark rainy clouds again! The donuts and coffee got us in gear again and on to seminars and venders booths. Seminar Chairman Dick Montgomery did a terrific job of handling the seminars and his efforts are greatly appreciated by all of us! That night, many opted for the $6 chicken dinner put on by the VFW at their hall. From what I heard, they were swamped with business but eventually I’m told, all customers were fed and left happy. The entertainment followed and a head count in the auditorium showed that almost a third of the attendees were First Timers! Yes!!! The entertainment was a musical keyboard player and singer, Sarah Getto, who was born blind but went on to earn high awards for composing and playing music on the guitar, bass and autoharp. She sang Pop, Country and Gospel and really put on a professional show! She commented that being 29 years old, she needs a boy friend and doesn’t care what he looks like! That broke up the crowd!
Saturday
The clouds finally cleared and that big yellow ball appeared in the sky – Horraaaaay!! More seminars, crafts and last minute shopping! We had a big turnout at happy hour with many guests enjoying our snacks and friendship. Karen and Sam Joseph brought in new members, Iggy and Cindy Konrad from Big Rapids! If you get a chance, send them a quick WELCOME at ikonradrv@gmail.com. After breaking for a quick dinner, it was off to the entertainment with the Harbor Lights singers. They put on a fantastic Be-Bop show bringing back many memories for those going back to the 50’s and 60’s. Of course, most of us were too young to remember, har, har…….but many seemed to recognize them anyway! No one from our group won the $3000 grand prize so we’ll have to have a chat with Bob Dingman who was pulling out those drawing tickets!
So, there you have it. Sunday morning was bright and sunny for our return and GLAMARAMA 2013 is history. Thank you all for your time and effort in monitoring the seminars, registration, chapter fair, crafts and the many other activities I may have missed. Special thanks go to Kathy and Dick Montgomery for all those long hours on this project.
Happy travels over the Winter and we’ll look forward to seeing you all again in May 2014!
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