Meeting summary by Rick Long
It was another great year at Lake Yale, 30th to be exact. We saw a lot of old friends and met some new ones. We had quite a few first timers and hope they return next year. Our president, Mark Duff updated us on what was going on in the organization. We had a full yard of logs for the sawmill, with a gigantic camphor stump that took 2 ½ days to whittle down. Dan Collom & John Burris had a well oiled crew that got everything cut up. Great job guys! Would like to thank everyone who donated the logs this year, we couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks to Ed & June Bryant for the use of your sawmill & tractor again this year, and thank you Dave Barriger for helping them to get it back home. We SOLD all of our wood and left nothing for the burn pile. Thanks everyone for making the week at the sawmill a success.
Thank You Joyce Symonds for the nine cases of water you supplied for the sawmill and auditorium to keep everyone hydrated for the week.
We had some really great demo’s this week. Bill Calderwood turned a celtic upside down salt & pepper shaker. Bob Dickherber turned bottle stoppers. Bob Chastain turned Easter eggs. Tom Bundza demoed the ringmaster. Joe Sanders demoed the rose engine. We also had a lot of members get some hands-on training from all of our turners. Thanks again everyone for volunteering your time and product to help make this year a success.
All of our classrooms were full this year just like every year. Chris Nothnagle brought his “great unknown” which turned out to be cell phone stands. Rhonda Long had the sand luminaries. They had some beautiful ones come out of her class. Eric & Violet Oman with the box clocks, all shapes and sizes came out of there. I believe we locked the place up with Jack LaForge still sanding his box (going to have to speed things up a little Jack). Rhonda Long had a wreath making class, and they turned out some very nice looking wreaths. Robert Marsh gave a class on making ukuleles and had some samples of glued up pieces that people could not break apart, very interesting demo Robert, sorry I missed it.
Eileen Tramontana, the Director from Trout Lake Nature Center gave a presentation on the trees of Florida. It was a very enjoyable experience. We passed the hat and collected $400.00 for their non profit organization.
Duane Keck held a wood identification quiz in the auditorium that was very popular. I asked Duane if he would like to announce the winners. His reply was: if you took the quiz you were a winner. Finally, we had the first off-site tour in a long time to the Discovery Gardens in Tavares, Florida, with three car loads of people and all said it was very enjoyable.
We had a very successful Silent Auction this year: thank you Art, Chris, and Garry for all your hard work putting this together. We also had a great Craft Auction, thank you everyone for your generous donations to make this all possible. I would like to thank Lucy Cruise for her hard work contacting all the businesses to get all the fantastic door prizes we gave away this year.
Silent Auction made $2,049
Craft Auction made $2,418
Wood Auction made $3,886
Sawmill Sales made $2,830
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Grand Total $ 11,183
I would like to thank all our members and non-members for your kind words to Elaine, Rhonda, and myself for doing a great job. We all thank you very much, but without your help and cooperation we could not have done this. So thank you again.
I would like to take this time to thank Elaine Hunt for agreeing to help Rhonda and I through this whole process and showing the ropes so we can take over next year. She has been doing this for a long time and she is officially stepping down and going to start attending the meetings to enjoy them instead of working them. You will be greatly missed. But I know you will be there if I need some advice. The Southeast Winter Woodfest will miss you and all your great work. I hope we can fill your shoes. We all love you.
Rick & Rhonda, Hosts Southeast Winter Woodfest