I'm finally to the point that I've sufficiently recovered from "having too much fun" over the weekend and now have the energy to post a few comments regarding our very successful 2015 Challenge Event. First of all, I want to thank each and every LCSCA member, as well as our excellent Friends from the PGCA, for their wonderful and continued support of this great event; and I don't have words to express my joy at seeing so many of our members who, because of this event, have become such wonderful and dear friends over the course of these past 12 years. And for those members who've not yet had the opportunity to attend, I can only encourage you to come join us, as it is only when you are there and experience the actual atmosphere surrounding the Challenge Event that one can truly appreciate why folks can hardly wait for the next event. As the LCSCA event manager, I wish to first of all thank my fellow Board of Director members who have trusted me with a "long rope" as regards my hare-brained promotional ideas; some of which actually seem to work, but all of which are intended to keep the event interesting and exciting. I also wish to extend my gratitude to Cheryl Stubbendieck and Idella deFernalmont for their invaluable contributions in managing our booth. Unless one has actually worked our booth, one cannot imagine how chaotic things can be when charged with the responsibility of simultaneously verifying and selling memberships, selling merchandise, giving directions and instruction, somehow keeping order; and always doing so with a friendly smile. One of the best thing that happened to me personally (and to these ladies) at this year's event occurred when Idella got tired of my well-intentioned interference and told me to get the heck our of their business!
I want to give a big thank you to John Liles and his team for the fabulous and amazing Smith guns display he cobbled together; and to all the LCSCA members who provided those featured guns from their collections. And I thank Frank Finch for sharing the wonderful and new discovery of his A3 twenty with everyone there; and most of all for tireless and energetic manner in which he promotes the LCSCA. It's worth the trip to Sanford just to watch this man in action; and the LCSCA is truly blessed to have him as our Executive Director and chief ambassador. I want to thank Jim Stubbendieck for being there again with the original Smith gun shipping records; member and non-member interest as to what these records reveal about their guns never wanes, and the information Jim can provide now that he has analyzed all surviving records is nothing short of amazing. I also wish to thank David Williamson for being there to answer technical questions and perform emergency gun repairs; and for recording the event in photos. And a big thanks to Jim Stahl also for his assistant with our raffle gun, and for his invaluable assistance in setting up/taking down and monitoring our display tables, most certainly a thankless job folks take for granted. And how could I not thank PGCA member Carl Brandt, and next year's PGCA manager, Mills Morrison, for the smooth manner in which they managed squadding for the Event One qualifying rounds and for the hammer gun Challenge. And finally, I would be remiss if I failed to remember our loyal event sponsors; Bill Kempffer and Deep River Sporting Clays, and Ralph Stuart and Shooting Sportsman Magazine. And if in my effort to thank everyone publicly, I may overlooked some one; I sincerely apologize for that oversight, but you know who you are and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your contributions towards making the Challenge Event such a great success.
And for those members who wanted to attend, but were unable; you still have an opportunity to support the LCSCA and own a 2015 Challenge Event keepsake, as we have a very limited number of our 2015 Commerative logo coins available. This coin features the LCSCA logo on one site and the PGCA logo on the other; and is identical to the "toss" coin used to determine shooting order for the Challenge Team Shootout. These coins are $25 each to include a display stand and shipping; and Cheryl Stubbendieck has posted pictures of the coin and ordering instructions below in a separate thread.
I have always considered myself blessed to be a small part of the LC Smith vs. Parker Challenge; and especially blessed whenever Team LC performs as they did at this year's Event! May you all have a safe and prosperous year, and may God grant you health so that we can be together once again that on that last weekend of April, 2016. Tom