President's Message- for March 21, 2016

Okay, I have been reminding or berating you over the last several weeks to get your auction items in. I would love to think that my constant reminders worked, but then I remembered that only 7 of you actually read the Tack and only 3 of you occasionally listen to me, so I will not take credit for the fact that we have reached the goal of 410 items for the auction.  

 

First, thank you to all of you who solicited at least one item or one quickie or big board sponsor.  It is your efforts that make the auction a success.  For those of you who did not solicit anything, and I suspect you know who you are (though I suspect none of the members of our club who failed to solicit anything actually read the Tack), please make more of an effort to get involved with the auction event itself.  Perhaps go to the setup on Saturday morning (April 2) or work the day of the auction on the phones, tabulating bids, working the pickup and pay area or be on TV as an auctioneer or MC.  If we had all solicited 3 items our club would have done its share.  Some club members do a lot more, but there is really no excuse for not soliciting anything for the auction.  There I feel better.

 

    Speaking of feeling better, I did something I had never done before this past weekend.  Despite growing up and living in Saco most of my life, and despite the fact that my father has been a major fundraiser for the event for 15 years, I had never been to a Mary’s Walk.  On March 20 I attended the opening ceremonies of Mary’s Walk.  It was well organized and a lot of fun.  Some of the Thornton students were part of a “flash mob”, Kim Block hosted the ceremonies, a number of significant fundraisers were acknowledged and Eric and Nancy Marston got up and talked about Nancy’s successful battle with breast cancer.  The whole thing was inspirational without being overdone.  Gene Libby and the entire Kerry family should be very proud of how they have turned their grief into a huge event which has raised so much money for cancer research.  Again, this is an example of one person’s idea becoming an enormous effort to fight a horrific disease.

 

    Enjoy the last blast of winter, welcome in spring in Maine and have a great week.  Bill