The 2022 Member Appreciation Picnic was pretty much a cut and paste from the 2021 picnic except that this year 102 members RSVP’d! I’ve never had a group that large at any LPR function and it was challenging. We still parked on the grass above the shaded picnic area. We still had burgers and dogs. LPR still provided munchies, beer, wine and waters. We still made s’mores.
But this year I had a whole posse of members to help onsite and instead of an article on the picnic I’d like to do a shout out to the folks who made my job easier.
I had an ace in the hole this year with my next door neighbor and club member Michelle Schaefer helping with set-up! She is a pro and needed very little direction. She helped unload the car, set-up the munchies and drinks. Plus she watched my back, making sure that I was available for random questions. Thank you my BFF!
And then there were the gals at check in. With (final count) 90 people to check in Sheila Dunwoodie, Bonnie Lund and Dana Ambrisko did a flawless job and even compiled a master list as to who attended. Kathy Musser had the touch job of handing out the goodie bags, one per car, a first for the picnic this year. President Peter Ridgway donned the Membership Director hat and surprised several members with their official LPR name badge.
Speaking of Goodie Bags, Chris Markham, donated about 60 Hot Wheels cars as give aways. Everyone was so excited to see what Porsche model was included in their goodie bag along with a racing rubber bracelet, an emotional support decal, tootsie rolls and gummy bears. I guess I never thought about gummy bears melting. We set up a hot wheels track for folks to race their cars. Thanks to Chris for his donation to the fun!
Bill Bauer volunteered to help with Bingo and he was so on it! It never occurred to me that the bingo set I have wouldn’t have enough markers for the number of folks playing bingo. So we got creative and used tootsie rolls. We played 2 games and then headed over to make S’mores. Great job Bill!
Sue Sickal, a S’mores aficionado, headed up the s’more making. While Roaring Camp provides marshmallows and sticks for roasting, the club provided the graham crackers and a variety of chocolate. Thank you Sue!
Lastly, I need to thank Tony Vanacore for all the help with procuring drinks, chips, salsa. He did so much and without his assistance and support I couldn’t have made this picnic the success I believe it was.