W
e e k l y F
e a t u r e P a g e
Links to archived past pages on lower left
| The contents of the “Weekly Feature” page are provided
to you for your entertainment, amusement, and perhaps information.
Here you may find articles of interest, pictures, historical information
on the Club, or whatever shuffles to the top of the pile on our
desk. The only defined characteristic of this space is that we
will make every effort to change/replace it around the middle of
each week. Thank you for visiting, and please stop by again. Click
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CLOSED FOR THE WINTER (or are we?)
Last October, members cleared out the campgrounds
put away tables and equipment, shut off the water, and closed everything
up at the showgrounds
until spring. The work was done for another year, it was time to just
cozy up to a warm fire, relax, and enjoy the winter months…oh
wait…that would be me in front of the warm fire relaxing…not
necessarily other members of the club.
Just because the end of summer came and fall and
winter soon followed does not mean that the work ended or that the
club’s activities
came to a screeching halt for the winter.
I’m told that there are tractor clubs that
never meet during the winter months because there is nothing going
on. MMOGTA holds a
meeting every month of the year and the attendance at meetings average
a minimum of 100 members or more each month.
Even though the grounds were closed for use, our
member electricians and carpenters were kept busy during the fall and
winter doing electrical
and carpentry work in the club office, machine shop, engine barn, and
miscellaneous other projects on the grounds. Ash trees were also cut
down and cleared in the campground area.
Late September/early October found our guys harvesting
Sorghum and then working through the long process involved in stripping
it and
pressing the sap out. The sap then had to be boiled for hours to make
molasses. Fran Doty and Michelle Sigafoose processed 18 gallons of
Sorghum which made about 72 quarts of molasses that the club sold during
the fall and winter months
Mid-October also had our Tree Planting committee
chairs, Ileen Schlicher and Lorri Beckman, planting several new trees
in the display areas
of the showgrounds. The winter months were spent ordering memorial
tags to be placed on the trees this spring.
November found Cindy Gengler and her crew scrambling to help Santa
buy gifts for club members’ children for the Annual Christmas
party. At the same time, Chad and Michelle Sigafoose, Fran Doty, Sandy
Young, and Sally Welch were busy planning and organizing the wonderful
meal that they (with additional help from many other members) put on
for our Annual Christmas Party.
Besides the good food at the party and Santa’s
special appearance with gifts for all of the kids, Bill Koski led a
blind auction of items
that were donated by members. The auction netted over $1,000 that went
toward charitable donations the club makes back to the community every
year.
In December, Cindy Gengler and Lorri Beckman also
organized a club food drive and sought donations from local businesses
for 2 families
from our organization that needed a little help to get them through
the winter.
Our tractor pull chairmen, Ryan Luft and Damon Gengler,
also held a meeting in December where tractor pullers received their
annual awards
and recognitions for the year.
At our January meeting, we held our election of new
officers. In February, committee chairs were appointed, the 2013 calendar
of events was completed,
and the tractor pull schedules were finalized.
February and March have Harriett Romain and myself
starting the planning and paperwork involved in contacting local schools
for our 7th Annual
Rural Education Day that takes place on September 27th. Although this
event is several months away, it takes many months of planning and
prep work to make it the success that it has become. Invitations were
mailed to local schools on Monday, March 11th and as of this writing
we have 529 fourth grade students registered for next September.
Since October, Bill Koski and Frank Young have been
busy collecting advertisers, articles, and pictures for this year’s
show book and will spend this spring working with our editor to get
the book
ready to go to press.
Fall and winter are also the times of year when many
members are busy overhauling and restoring their tractors, especially
the MASSEY-HARRIS
owners in anticipation of this year’s featured tractor at our
August show. OR, they could be like my husband who is already working
on his HUBER tractors in anticipation of the featured tractor for our
2014 show.
April will mark our Opening Weekend at the showgrounds
for the tractor pullers. The quiet serenity of the grounds in Frank’s
pictures below will change as the buildings are reopened, the water
is turned
on, the campgrounds fill with campers, and members start work on getting
the grounds ready for our show.
If you are a person who suffers from cabin-fever
during the winter months and you are getting bored and anxious to be
outside working,
give one of our committee chairs a call and see if there is anything
you can do to help them out. You can find their names and numbers under
the “COMMITTEES” tab to the left of this page.
It seems like there is never enough time to complete
all the tasks that are involved in not just putting on a great show
every year in
August, but also in making MMOGTA one of the best and most active
tractor clubs in the state of Michigan!  
 
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