Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I think I am finally catching my breath. Let me introduce you to a few of our vendors--I, unfortunately, did not get all their photos--so if anyone wants to send me some, please send them to thebusmuseum@yahoo.com.

On the west wall from the front to the back--Pete's Model Garage (2nd picture) from Massachusetts (could you tell from his accent???). Charlie Wotring/Royal Coach (top picture) had the tables further down that wall.

Here's the list of vendors and/or displays:

Awesome Dyecast/Jeffrey Silver
Don Barnes
Robert Beard
Mr. Copestine
Terry Cosentino/Berks Historical Society
Ken Cosgrove
John Dockendorf
Joe Golabiewski
John Lenhart
Alex Lock

Louk Markham (School Bus Display)
Wayne Mathias
Matt Michner
Tom Mozer/Dave Dearstyne
New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center
Pete’s Model Garage
Royal Coach/Charles Wotring
George Slezak
Irv Smith
Angel Tollens Custom Painted Models

Thank you all for your participation in our day....watch the blog in the following days for more pictures.

And, I want to add a BIG THANK YOU to our volunteers -- without these people, we could never have pulled this off in such a big way (the numbers are in - 77 paid attendees on Friday and 302 on Saturday). Especially, to those who worked in the RAIN on Friday--thanks to Ken McNellis who (in addition, to helping vendors empty their vehicles and set up) directed traffic (vendors, buses, etc) at the Annex in the rain on Friday--he was soaked to the bone but went outside in the pouring rain every time the bus appeared!

Thanks also to Dan Lehman who cooked for us and Bob Devine and his family (Maureen and Tara) and to Don Barlup who helped with the food on Saturday. A BIG THANKS also to Tom Mozer--he is tireless! He was relentless in setting up and tearing down the tables--not sure where he gets all his energy! Thank you Dino Mandros for those GREAT meatballs and the rolls and for helping with the buses/parking on Saturday! Thanks also to Ed Wolf, who handled the silent auctions and the 50/50 drawing, Bob Smith and Doug Campbell who manned the floor at the Museum while we were all at the Annex, and Tom Collins who got things rolling on the buses up at the Museum. Thank you to Bob Beard who did all our publicity and got our sponsors.

We also thankfully had the help of Ralph Fetrow's son (sorry, I didn't get his name) who sold 50/50 chances for us. And, thanks Becky Tollens, one of the vendor's wives, who helped us with the set-up on Thursday--so you can see it was a "all hands on deck" event!

Of course, thank you to Oliver Ogden who maintained the Gift Shop table and has done a great job in setting up the archives in the "shed". He has wrangled a number of "free" (one of our favorite 4-letter words!) file cabinets and has been busy filing items. He also was able to get Ken Springirth (one of the Authors of the books we sell) to be here on Friday to autograph his books. Thanks, Ken.

I hope I didn't miss anyone--I'm sure someone will let me know if I did!