Here are some photo/video galleries from our guests at the Fun Run!
Rick Fromm:
Tri-Five Revolution
Fun Run Report
Jim Eakin
The 2022 Fun Run Car Show was a huge success! Thank you to all the hard work put in by the Fun Run Committee members and to all the volunteers that made this a great event. Here are some highlights of how the show was put together and how the show was run.
The Committee started meeting in September to plan for the event. Jim extracted the emails from the 2019 and 2020 databases and sent out an email blast to over 600 people that entries would open on February 1. This got our entries off to a great start.
After we reached about 450 entries, the Committee held its first of several “parties” at Jim's house.
Postcard party. Mail merge labels were put on postcards along with stamps. The labels included the registration number after each name. Entrants would then use the postcard at the registration desk on Friday or Saturday. (Postcards were used this year in lieu of the envelopes used in past years.)
Registrar parties. It took two long consecutive days to assign all entrants to their parking spaces. Consideration was given to large car clubs, early entrants, and keeping people together when requested. At this time, there were about 480 entries, so it was decided not to assign parking spaces in the north section of the Bartlett parking lot, but to instead use that for staff parking (parking pass required).
Envelope stuffing party. Labels with parking number and entrance color (red - Bartlett north, white - Pine Knot north, blue - Village Drive east) were printed in parking number order and placed on the appropriate colored card in parking number order. Labels for envelopes were also printed in parking number order (not registration number). That way, cards and envelopes were in the same order for easy placement of each card into an envelope. The envelopes were then passed around for T-shirt coupon, goodie bag coupon, maps, and instructions. After all envelopes were stuffed, the envelopes were then separated into groups of 100 and sorted. The envelopes were then placed into their respective boxes to be ready for the registration desk.
Goodie bag stuffing party. Just before the show, our volunteers got together to put license plates and other goodies into 500 bags provided by Edelbrock. Fortunately Jim had quite a few large boxes left over from his move! Cliff kept the goodie bags in his truck until Friday morning.
Parking number marking took place on Thursday morning for the Bartlett parking lot and on Saturday morning for Pine Knot Ave and Village Drive. Jim provided sectional maps of Bartlett, Pine Knot, and Village for easy marking of the spaces. Thanks to a large number of volunteers, marking of the Bartlett parking lot took about 30 minutes.
(Marking of Village and Pine Knot could only be done Saturday morning because the streets were open before then. Cars could not enter Village Dr or Pine Knot until all spots were marked.)
Friday morning was the main registration day. Tables and canopies were set up early. The boxes with the envelopes were set up in registration order. Goodie bags were on hand for each entrant. Each entrant would present his/her postcard for easy retrieval of their envelope. Knowing that the dog could eat their postcard, Jim provided name lookup sheets.
The command center (Troy and Cherry'sbRV) was parked in the south end of the Bartlett parking lot, with merchandise and registration tables in front.
At the registration tables, an entrant would present his postcard and receive his envelope. Once an entrant received his envelope, he would sign that he received it and then get his goodie bag. The large map of the Village showed where each parking space was located. The entrant could then go to the Midnight Impressions booth to get his T-shirt.
Unfortunately for entrants, on Friday there was a toxic spill incident on the railroad resulting in I-15 being closed. This caused a huge delay for people trying to get up to Big Bear to register. Registration stayed open until 5:30 to try to accommodate late comers.
Saturday - Show Day!The colored entrances and staff parking entrance were manned by members of the Civil Air Patrol. After getting past the entry gate, an entrant would be directed to their numbered parking spot by the Interact group, which is part of Rotary. Again, Jim provided sectional maps to help the Interact people identify where parking spaces were.
Entrants needed their colored parking card to gain entrance to the Village. The parking number identified their location and was also required as their number for any award they might win.
Entry to Pine Knot and Village Dr was opened after the parking number crews reported that they were done with marking. Judges were then sent out to do judging for the 70 awards to be given out. Judges needed to walk the entire Village to find their winners, then report back to Cliff at registration with their selections. Then the Awards Committee met in the Chamber meeting room to determine winners. Note that it is club policy that an entrant could only win one award.
During the awards meeting, the skies opened up and it poured! I put the car cover over my convertible only to find out later that it wasn't completely waterproof! After the downpour, everyone got out their towels and chamois and the cars were ready for the Cruise in short order. Good thing the rain came after the judges finished their work! Also, the restaurants benefitted because many people took refuge in the nearest dry spot. (We'll have to plan rain next year for this reason!)
After the award winners were determined, runners (thank you!) then returned to each car to let them know to come to the awards ceremony Sunday morning.
Then everyone was let out for the Cruise around the Lake at 3:30 PM. This was a fitting and fun end of the day for the Fun Run car show. People on both sides of the lake lined up to watch the cars go by.
Sunday was a beautiful day for the Awards. Bleachers were set up and the award plaques lined up for presentation. All but one of the 70 award winners showed up in time to line up in award number order. Turns out the one missing entrant got so ill he couldn't come to the ceremony. (We'll still get his award to him.)
The Awards show started with presentation of colors by the Marine Color Guard followed by the singing of our National Anthem by the Unaccompanied Minors, singing a cappella - beautifully done.
Cliff and Jim did the announcing honors, with Bill presenting awards when a presenter was not present. Ninfa presented a long stemmed rose to each winner. The presentation was made against two large American flags, with each award presentation being photographed by Dave Parker.
Everyone had a great time at this show. It took a lot of organizing beforehand, but it couldn't have gone so smoothly without team members stepping up to help when there was something needed. Special thanks to Ron for his hard work with leading getting things out of storage, setting up, and even traffic control during the Cruise. Karl seemed to always be there to help me with a thorny problem that I hadn't thought about. Thanks Bill Downs for helping me with those chores. Many of the RodRiders stepped in to help with setup and judging. And Cliff's help with vendors and awards was enormous.
The next Fun Run meeting is planned as a debriefing session to celebrate our success and to also discuss what was missed and what we could do better. Please let us know your thoughts on how to make next year's Fun Run even better.
If you've got a photo/video gallery you'd like to share, send the link to us! Thanks!
