5/13/09

LETTER from the PRESIDENT - KIT-HAN-NE REGION of the AACA

Well, the snow has turned into rain - and more rain - we're in the middle of May and hopefully NO more rain. This month, and each month for the rest of the season, the Cadet Cruise comes before the monthly club meeting. The Cadet Cruise is Wednesday May 20th and the club meeting the following Wednesday, May 27.

The april cruise lost money due to the low turnout due to threatening weather plus the cost of 100 dash plaques, but, the people that created the 20 car turnout lessened the loss and they had a good time. We had a small 50/50. We had a GREAT turnout of members to help out - we had plenty of people for every task - thank you for all of the help. At the April cruise, Butch Lamar from Indiana won the dash plaque drawing and he was as excited as Eric Traister was last fall when his 1973 Chrysler won the rights to a dash plaque. Butch is a regular - he has the silver 2005 Mustang and usually parks over in the Keystone Kruisers "row" near the grass by registration. This time, he was driving a primered, hot rodded Camaro, but when he won the dash plaque drawing, he preferred to have the Mustang in the picture, so we made arrangements to go back to the Cadet a few days later and he showed up with the Mustang. We got a bunch of proof shots, Rusty got the dash plaque art work done quickly and the plaques will be ready for the cruise. We sent Butch a thank you letter for supporting the event and provided him with copies of the proofs.

The trip to the Bonfire restaurant and Ed Brown's garage was really nice. We only had 11 people show up out of the 4 clubs invited, but those who went really enjoyed themselves. Ed's property (27 acres and no dandylions!), garage and cars were just beautiful. Thank you Boyd for setting it all up. Weather was somewhat threatening in the morning but cleared up during the day. Ed has a nice mix of cars from a late 30's Hudson convertible (Bud's favorite), to 4 Mercury lowriders (the Marylin Monroe convertible was my favorite) to the modern Corvette with the older Corvette front and rear treatment.

Again, May Cadet Cruise is Wednesday, May 20. We start setting up at around 2PM. Please come and help when you can.

Bud and Carolyn Glendening have set up an October 17th, 2009, overnight trip to Riverside Inn in Cambridge Springs, PA. We have flyers to pass out. It involves a play, dinner and overnight stay with breakfast. It really sounds like fun - please sign up soon by responding to Bud or Bobbi. We have 10 rooms reserved in the club name. We'll also be filling you in on other trips, cruises and events soon.

At the suggestion of Ron Rabickow, we are working with Kalmar Motors, just north of Leechburg, to do the HAVIN show/cruise that we used to do at Charapp. The plan is to keep it in Armstrong County since HAVIN is an agency in Armstrong County. Also, Kalmar is somewhat in Kiski Valley Region of the AACA "turf", so we've asked Kiski Region to partner with us on this new venture. There will have been an organizational meeting with Kalmar before the May club meeting at Theresa's, so we'll have new news then.

There are still members not paid up for the 2009 dues. Please take care of that item of business and send your $10 Kit-Han-Ne dues to treasurer Jim Schultze as soon as possible. This is the 5th reminder. When your local dues are paid up, you'll receive your AACA membership card dated for 2009.

Our next 2009 meeting is Wednesday, May 27, 2009, at Theresa's Royal Allegheny. Dinner is at 6PM and the meeting starts at 7PM. Please plan to attend if you can make it - we have a lot of business items to discuss.

In June, Boyd has information on a national Crown Victoria Club meet in Bedford, PA. Maybe a road trip?

Another possible road trip if there's enough interest - in July, The Packard Museum, Warren, Ohio. 2 hour drive each way. This year they are featuring the 46 Packard models of 1937. Apparently, the museum has gotten commitments from enough owners to show the full line of 1937 Packards - that will be a twice-in-a-lifetime "sighting", with the first being 1937. One of the weekend days (we'll get dates, etc., to you or at the meeting) is an "open cruise" which means that there will be a special parking area for driven-in cars, such as car clubs would come in, so going to Warren in our old cars would make for a nice destination.

Also, in July, the Association for the Blind is having a chili cookoff at the Worthington firehall. July 18th, 10AM till 9PM. They have requested a "showing" of old cars. Again, if there's interest, maybe we can put something quick together.