Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it Snow!
That would have been the theme for this year's banquet. The
weather report was grim; therefore the attendance was low.
Many of the WHAM members drive at least one and a half hours or
more to come to the banquet so when the weatherman predicted nasty
weather several of the members chose not to travel. But, for
us “die hards”, we got in our four wheel drive truck and were set
on making the trip there before the snow started to fly!
Knowing how hardy Michigan people are,
WHAMYA threw a get-together and about 12 of the WHAMYA kids showed
up. While they were swimming, eating chips and cookies and
playing games, many of us attended the Annual Meeting which was
held directly before the banquet.
This year’s banquet was held at the Soaring
Eagle Conference Center in Mt Pleasant. The food was great and
there was a good variety for everyone so no one went home hungry.
There were plenty of awards handed out this year. The “show”
winners received name plates for their horse’s stall with the name
of the horse and all their titles engraved on them. The
“trail” winners received engraved plaques with their personal
accomplishments on them. I thought these were a nice change
from the usual trophies.
Thanks to everyone that brought items to
donate for the Silent Auction. Unfortunately, due to the low
turnout, the silent auction (which is one of WHAM’s largest
fundraisers) didn’t bring in the funds that it normally does.
The items were very limited so there weren’t as many things to bid
on. Region II provided a portable corral which brought in
the highest bid. A special “Thank You” goes to Suzy Wyckoff
for her work on the Silent Auction; she tried very hard to get the
donations in. I’m sure the “pinch” that everyone is feeling
financially had something to do with the low number of donations
as well.
By 7:00 the snow began to fall.
Those that had booked rooms to stay the night were glad they did.
Several others decided not to brave the weather and stayed the
night. The rest of us planned on leaving as soon as possible
to escape the bad roads.
By 8:00 all the awards had been handed
out and everyone was on their way. I can definitely say that for
once, the weather man was right. What should have taken a
little less than 2 hours took us over 3 (nail biting) hours to get
back home to Holland and the roads were miserable. But we
made it!
