 I always thought the greatest fear when planning an outdoor event…especially a car show…was the threat of rain. That was until this year, when just two days before WinterFest 2010 was scheduled to start, I found out the greatest fear is fire!
There was a serious fire in the Host Hotel, forcing the evacuation of all guests, and leaving the hotel facing the probability that they will be closed for more than six months.
But as they say, the show must go on, and indeed it did, ultimately making WinterFest 2010 the biggest and best ever!
It couldn’t have been done without the Holiday Inn’s General Manager Mike Geschke, who is a classic car lover, and who went well beyond that proverbial extra mile, insuring that the weekend continued to run on schedule.
First, they provided us accommodations at their sister Holiday Inn, just ten minutes south of the original location, and honored our rate. Then they saw to it that we all had a free, hot breakfast each morning.
They brought in generators to power the DJ, and portable lights for the Friday evening Cruise In in the parking lot. Oh, and portable bathrooms, of course.
They wouldn’t be able to use the kitchen, so they arranged for a refrigerated truck to be on site for the weekend. And they were able to cook on a couple portable outdoor stoves, providing us with hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, sausage, peppers and onion subs, cold drinks, and a full outdoor bar!
And while they were doing all this arranging, me and the show staff worked at drying out all the boxes of door and raffle prizes, and show paperwork that I stored at the hotel just one day before the fire. Yes, we lost some of the prizes, and almost all the paperwork!
We were relegated to one small corner of the still-smoke-filled hotel, and that’s where we worked most of the day Thursday.
Thursday and Friday, I answered my phone nearly a couple hundred times, and responded to more than eighty e-mails, all with the same question…is the show still on. I really had my doubts, but we were prepared to work around the clock to insure that it was!
And in the middle of all this, I blew out the power steering pressure hose on my ‘68 convertible, and Sonny and Packard Bill jumped right in to fix it. Trust me on this…it’s not an EASY fix!
When Friday evening finally rolled around, we were exhausted. The cars began arriving for the cruise in, and it was getting colder outside. With about fifty cars in attendance, WJBJ DJ Butch Johnston started off the music with about twenty songs that had something to do with fire and smoke!
At 8:00 PM, as it got REALLY cold, we gave out several door prizes, and had out 60/40 drawing, that netted the winner $180. Then we took down the tents, loaded up our cars with show supplies, and drove back to the hotel.
At 7:00 AM Saturday, we were on our way back to the show. We hustled to set up the Show Registration tent, and by 7:30, even though we asked that they not arrive until 9:00, cars began lining up to enter the show.
The Host Hotel rallied once more, providing free coffee to everyone for the better part of the cloudy, chilly morning.
By the time registration closed, there were more than 150 vehicles on the show field, and eight vendors.
On display was Jimmie Johnson’s #48 NASCAR car, and it WASN’T a clone! No, Jimmie wasn’t there, but his car was, and it drew the attention of everyone on the show field with a camera!
Just after 2:00, we began the awards, found out that the Long Distance winner had driven 450 miles to attend the show, and saw that the Mopars of Brevard received the Club Participation awards, filling the entire front row of the show field. The winner of the 50/50 drawing netted him $430...no name given here, so no one can tell his wife!
United States Congressman Bill Posey spoke briefly, and then presented his award for his favorite car on the show field. As a Florida Senator, Bill was responsible for all the new street rod and classic car legislation (it's ALL good stuff!), and the participants’ showed their appreciation with a standing ovation!
At the conclusion of the show, we barely had the energy left to disassemble our show equipment, pack it up, and get back to the hotel. The only thing that really kept us going was the praise we received from the participants!
However, there happens to be a cocktail lounge and restaurant in the hotel, and that’s where we all ended up for dinner...and more. Our long day turned into an even longer night!
The list of thanks would be a mile long, so we won’t get into it here. However, my thanks do go out to all those that attended, and stuck with us under the most adverse conditions!
The hotel will be completely re-done in the next six to nine months, and we’ll surely be back there for WinterFest 2011! |