From the President
As I sit and write this morning, it is the 3rd of December which means I am a little late with this job. I'm not sure it will make a big difference when Santa gets to my Christmas stocking as I'm sure my not so good list is already long enough to qualify me for that dreaded lump of coal. Oh well maybe next year I'll do better.
Last Sunday, December 1st was our OHC Christmas party. We had a great turn out, 71 by my count. If you did not make it, I'll hit just a few of the high lights. Barbi from Blue Moon catering in Pickington served us an absolutely awesome meal. To start, she laid out a wide selection of appetizers for our guest to enjoy as they arrived and mingled with friend prior to the main course. The main menu had been chosen by popular vote from the member. There were two choices of meat, sliced roast beef and chicken cordon blue, scalloped potatoes, old fashion green beans and a tossed green salad. Rolls and buffalo chicken dip plus a variety of drinks completed the meal. It had been suggested at the November meeting that we as the members attending the party could provide desert. A wide selection of pies, cup cakes, cookies, pumpkin rolls etc were brought in for all to enjoy. One thing I am sure of, there are several good cooks in our group. If you went home hungry I'm sorry but it might have been your fault.
After dinner, I had a few people I wanted to recognize plus a couple awards I needed to present before Santa arrived. To start, I wanted to thank the officers of the club for their dedication and sacrifice of time to make Fairfield OHC the quality club it is today. Pam Dean Vice President, Margaret Hite Treasurer, June Streitenberger, Historian and Tanna Roads, Madam Secretary. All but Tanna were given coffee cups with our club logo on them filled with chocolate. This was Tanna's last year as secretary (for now) so I had a special cup made for her. The cup featured a picture of Tanna in her Indian Halloween costume on one side, the other side was inscribed, Madam Secretary, Thanks A Bunch. If you wish to see the Indian costume, go to our OHC face book page. Tanna had posted the picture back in October.
Earlier in the year I had started a member volunteer award program. The concept was as our club had work days and needed volunteers to accomplish the task at hand, those that showed up to help got their name put into a hat for a future drawing. The member that was drawn from the hat at year end was to receive a personalized stone plaque with a picture of the winners choice itched on. All year we had great support from a large number of members at the various projects we under took. The winner of this year's plaque was Margaret Hite. Congratulations and a big thanks to Margaret.
Another award started a few years back by Anita Hoon, is called the Silver Spur Award. It is intended to go to someone in the club that has consistently gone above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak, to enhance the quality of our club with their unselfish gift of time and skills. This year I chose Kathleen Smith to receive the award. I am sure several have never met Kathy. She doesn't attend a lot of meeting due to a busy life style and ability to travel now that she and her husband Bruce are retired. She does come to some of the organized rides. Kathy's asset to our club is her computer skills. Kathy is a retired veterinarian with a fascination with computers. This year I asked her to upgrade our web page as well as our face book page. The results speak for them self. For several years she has assisted the president of our club to publish this monthly newsletter. As president we put together our thoughts on paper, round up up some pictures, then turn the info over to Kathy for her to work her magic. The end result is what you are reading. As an OHC member, Kathy does all of these chores for us at no charge. In my opinion, Kathy is a perfect example of the type of member to receive the Silver Spur award. Thanks Kathy!
When I finished up my portion of the evening, I turned the party over to Santa Claus. Yep Santa showed up to join in on our fun. He had a few special gifts to present to our guest, while other chose the opportunity to get a family photo op. To finish up the evening, we formed a circle, randomly passed out gifts that the members had provided for a gift exchange. Santa read a Christmas story that involved the family of Mrs Right and Left. As the word right and left were mentioned in the story, the gifts were passed around the circle in the direction of the word mentioned. Seems like a simple task, but the passing of gifts never goes quite as easy as it should. At the end of the story and after a considerable amount of laughter, you open the gift you are holding. Just good old fashion fun.
Great food, great people, laughter and a visit from Santa. An evening hard to beat in my book.
Moving on, as you finish up riding for the year, remember to turn your miles into Tom McGuire. He need to compile the information and turn I into the state OHC by the end of January. This information is important as it is used in a variety of way. Just one of which is to assist us when making grant request. The trail miles as well as volunteer hours we donate to the state are reviewed and important in the grant application process.
Speaking of Tom McGuire, as most know, Tom had major back surgery on November 19th. The surgery involved fusing a couple of disks, a laser procedure to open up the center of a disk that was pinching the spinal column and realigning a disk with a metal rod, plates and screws. The surgery went well but I am told but Tom has a long recovery ahead of him. He tells me he can feel himself getting better every day but I am sure the recovery process is slower than he would like.
Our first meeting for 2020 will be on Sunday the 12th. As always it will be at 7 pm at the Fat Cats Pizza in Lancaster. We will have a new secretary, Kathy Campbell. Welcome Kathy! The rest of the officers remain the same as 2019. I don't have a cut in stone agenda for this first meeting, but we need to be thinking about our activity plans for the year.
Hope to see everyone in a couple weeks.
Chris