Over the past two years, I have found myself writing this page and scrambling to meet Bob McCauley’s deadline of the third Friday of the month. It’s often been a challenge, but it has always been enjoyable to pull together news and notes stemming from our club family. In the forty plus years that Delores and I have been members of the club, family is as good a way to describe it as any.
Over the years, we as club family, have all shared in the joy of the birth of children, mourned the loss of many who have passed on, and we continue to go through our respective life experiences with a certain collectivity. It’s that group approach to things that makes the club a special part of our lives and, to a degree, defines who we are. It identifies us to all those people in the larger community with whom we interact. Besides the cars in parades or on tour, the benevolence of our members, whether it’s the breakfast boys, the Antique Car Tunes or the museum restorations, we’re out there. Folks may get the name wrong, but one way or the other it’s the old car club.
I am pleased to have had the privilege of being president these past two years and working with such a supportive executive and committee chairs. Thank you all! The two-year term allows us to have some continuity so that new ideas and direction can be tested and applied. And we have had some change, including the new The Flying Quail, the web site, signage, the mascot car, musical entertainment, tours all over the Valley and new members. It’s the new members that attest to the well-being of the club, in my opinion.
New members bolster our ranks and bring a wealth of energy and ideas and strengthen our team of people who get things done, within the club and out in the community. Their special vehicles add flair to our fleet and their dues help to keep the bank account in the black. In the past two years, we have had twenty-three members join or renew a former membership, including: John & Gail Hanson, Ralph Lemke, Ellsworth & Shirley Mullen, Dean & Anita Lapierre, Wally & Ann Cochrane, Ernie & Dianne Murdoch, Claude & Marie Fortin, Tom & Shannon Dunfield, Garfield & Pauline Stewart, Janice Visneskie & Leslie Moore, Kevin & Kaye O’Gorman and Glen & Margaret Coules. Welcome!
I look back on quite a list of tours including: Fort Coulonge, Calumet, Bristol & Norway Bay Quebec, Upper Canada Village, Golden Lake & Dore Bay, Braeside, Calabogie and many points in between. We’ve enjoyed meals and music on most of these forays and it’s of this that we will look back on fondly, as having been time well spent in friendship, in our hobby.
I am pleased that our nominating team has assembled a new slate of officers for the coming two years. I know that we’ll be continuing in a good direction under the leadership of our new president Wayne Brohart (and first lady Chris). Delores Lemkay (my first lady) as vice-president, Ed Lapa as our new secretary and Wendy TerMarsch carrying on the tradition of treasurer bodes well for our future. Good luck as you take on your responsibilities for 2011 and 2012.
Dave Lemkay
