Labor Day Report
The Labor Day “Fun in the Sun” Cruise (Sept. 4th – 6th) lived up to all the hype that preceded it. It was guaranteed that we would have sun. With the exception of some early morning fog on Saturday – we had sun everyday! Guarantee delivered!
It was guaranteed that we would have great food. The feeding frenzy started on Friday night - we had a well-attended pot luck dinner – boy, there are some really good cooks in this club! The Rutledge Team provided an excellent Saturday morning breakfast – poached eggs w/hollandaise sauce & salmon hash. Next up, the Yates Team came through with another fantastic Saturday night Clam Bake with chicken, potatoes, and some killer corn-on–the-cob. True to fashion, the Rolstad Team provided their famous Sunday morning made-to-order omelets. Not to be outdone, on Sunday night, the McPhee Team served up a Southern Jambalaya that required seconds. Last, we had another full breakfast (eggs, sausage, and hash browns) prepared on Monday morning by a team led by Jess Hill & Jerry Zuvich. And if this weren’t enough, large quantities of hors d’oeuvres were consumed both Saturday and Sunday afternoons on the upper deck. Because there were quite a number of people staying over into the following week, we even had 33 people participate in a pick-up dinner on Monday night! No question about it - guarantee delivered!
It was also guaranteed that laughter would be heard coming from QCYC during the weekend. You be the judge. On Saturday, Mike Hillman’s crew hosted the fish races. The races had everyone lining the rails on the deck to watch contestants immerse their faces in the water to urge their fishes on to victory. If you saw George Austin and Jess Hill blowing bubbles – you were howling! Saturday night Tim & Nadeane Rutledge showed the movie Blazing Saddles in the clubhouse. The laughter coming from the clubhouse could be heard on the docks! Sunday was no different. During the day, Chuck & Jan Gould’s crew put on one funny dog show. Again, there was standing room only on the upper deck! I don’t know what was funnier – the dogs – or their owners! Both Larry and Dorothy Dubia had the crowd in stitches. And again Sunday night the Rutledges showed another movie – this time it was The Blues Brothers – same result, laughter heard coming from the clubhouse all the way down on the docks! Again - guarantee delivered!
Oh, there was also a little raffle held over the weekend. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 to 3000 tickets were sold! Yes, you read that right – 2000 to 3000 tickets! There were 14-15 prizes awarded after Sunday night’s dinner, and a Grand Prize awarded after Monday morning’s breakfast. In the future, I think we have decided to call this type of raffle THE LAURIE ZUVICH RAFFLE! Laurie won at least half of the prizes – out of a few thousand tickets! Unbelievable!
Cruising into Winslow on Thursday afternoon my mind was racing - I didn’t have someone to do this. I had forgotten to ask someone to help me with that, etc. To say I was worried would be an understatement. Heck, when we arrived, the first person that walked up to me asked me what we were going to do for decorations. Decorations? I had to do decorations too? And to make things worse, another boat came in – blocking any thought I had of a last second departure from the dock! Well you know what - before my last cigar was smoked on Thursday, I had more help than what I knew what to do with. Members that I had rarely or never spoken to before came up to me to offer their assistance - I was overwhelmed with support. There are so many people to thank – I want to publicly acknowledge each and every person for helping with the weekend. And I want to publicly apologize to each and every person that I forget to thank – there were so many people jumping in and lending a hand that I kept having to rewrite my lists over and over again.
One example: After Monday’s breakfast I announced that we would take a short break and meet back in the clubhouse and divide into teams to perform the cleanup of the entire facility. So I ran back to the boat and counted monies, paid out some monies due, then got back to the clubhouse with minutes to spare – only to find that the cleanup was done! Not in progress, but done! And most of the people had already left – so I don’t even know who to thank. I even double-checked the work because I didn’t want to incur the wrath of the Outstation Managers [they’re tough, you know] - but we passed with flying colors.
So I thank everyone for helping me to do my job over the weekend,.including George & Nancy Austin, Terry & Marge Baker, Jim Bailey, Kyle Bixby, Bill & Mary Brunkhorst, Tim & Carolyn DeCook, Larry & Dorothy Dubia, Bill Field, Kathy Fish, Andy Gerde, Chuck & Jan Gould, Millie Grayson, Paul Grimm, Scott Grimm, Gary & Elaine Halverson, Jess & Linda Hill, Bob Hillmann, Mike Hillmann, Ed Jennerich, Tony & Marcia Johnson, Dean & Sistee Lentgis, Doug Lindal, Dick & Teri McGrew, Scott McPhee, Jack Miller, Lynn & Kathy Montgomery, Bob & Laurean Myers, Russ & Arlene Oberg, Bob & Diane Prestebak, Sue Ellen Purvis, Craig Ranta, Denny & Joie Roehl, Carolyn Rolstad, Tim Rutledge, Greg & Heidi Scott, Bob & Lois Stettner, Jim Van Wagenen, Carl & Stephanie Weiss, Mark & Lupe Weiss, Sherry Whitworth, Bob Yates, and Jerry & Laurie Zuvich.
A couple of very special thank yous go out to Tracy McPhee, Nadeane Rutledge, Crystal Yates, and the late Ron Rolstad. As Labor Day approached, questions kept popping up and I was becoming increasingly nervous that something would be forgotten. So I was on the phone to these individuals – often - surely driving them crazy! But every time I threw something at them, they eased my concerns and assured me that everything would be taken care of.
I also want to thank my wife Karen. Thank you for helping me carry out the trash late at night, thank you for reminding me that I had to get up early, thank you . Finally, thank you QCYC for allowing me to chair this event for you. Personally, I got a lot out of the weekend. I was able to get to know some people that, going into the weekend, I didn’t know very well – and I was able to build stronger bonds with some people that I already had a relationship with.
Stephen Coughlin
