[at-l] Vote Results

[kahley7 <kahley7@ptd.net>]

Well this will come as no surprise to most, but the vote was overwhelming.....
The Ruckfund money will be donated, in the memory of Ed Garvey to
The Place in Damascus, VA.

I have talked to G P Grindstaff, who is the chairman of the hostel committee
and informed him of our intent.  I explained what the Ruck is and that we
were having a raffle and an auction and that the money would be sent to
the church for maintenance of The Place.  He was thrilled.
It seems that the Place has been more or less self supporting for all these
years until recently and it has caused a bit of a problem for the church
and the committee.  In fact, a meeting has been planned to discus the
future plans for The Place and Mr. Grindstaff (would make a cool trailname <g>)
was very, very happy to have such good news to report to the committee!

I got the impression that they are not wedded to the idea of aluminum siding.
And no plans will be undertaken till spring.

When I suggested that there may be the possibility of volunteer scrappers,
painters and such showing up around Traildays, he was_very_enthusiatiic!

I was careful to say that we were not yet making promises but at least we could
publicize the need and try and organize a hiker effort to provide the labor so
that whatever money we raised could be stretched as far as possible.

That moved him to reveal a dream that he and some of the other committee
members have had for awhile.  He said there was nothing more heart breaking
to them, than to have a late season hiker come in to town only to find the
hostel closed.  The Place is not insulated and cannot be used in the winter
due to the problems of the pipes freezing.  He reports that more and more
winter hikers are showing up.  Probably those crazy feelixbounders <g>.
Don't worry....I didn't commit us to that !  But I did get the idea that 
whatever
money we raise, if it is in excess of the needs of the paint job, will be 
put to
good use to benefit the hiking community.  Especially if we can use hiker labor
to put on the paint!

I wish you all could have been on a conference call to hear the tone of his
voice as he asked me to please send him a note and write what I was
telling him so he could take it to the committee meeting!  There was a sad
note too.  Mr Grindstaff was not aware that Ed Garvey had died.  He talked
of how Ed had come to The Place every year and of how he and Ed had
sat over there and talked about the trail and the hikers.  I think you guys
made a great pick for the Ruckfund money.....as Sly said:
"to The Place in Ed Garvey's Memory....Awesome!"

Of course, if any of you want to follow Feelix's lead, and raise some extra 
cash
on your own for The Place, all the better!  But no fair buying Raffle tickets
with it <g>.

The RotsaRuckRaffle Tickets will go one sale next week.....Details to follow.


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