SWCCCR Meeting - Dec. 8th

[tedebayer]

[glow=red,2,300]Merry Christmas![/glow]

The SouthWest Chapter of Cental Carolinas Region (more commonly known as SWCCCR) will hold it's Christmas meeting on December 8th at Quaker Steak and Lube on Chrome Drive in Greenville, SC. www.thelube.com/Greenville_SC/

We eat from 6 to 7 and meet from 7 to 8:30. This is a meeting of sports car people... road racers, hillclimbers, autocrossers, car restorers or people who enjoy driving ... anyone with a common passion. We invite you to come, bring a friend, eat, relax and socialize with a great bunch of fun people.

ARE YOU IN THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT YET? The SWCCCR group has agreed to help with the Coats For Kids/ Celebrate the Child Program again this year. This is a great cause helping children of financially stressed families in the upstate to have a Merry Christmas! Where can you donate 2 hours of your time and impact the lives of more than 300 people in one evening? More info in the attachment. You can help and there are 3 different ways :

1. Donations are appreciated! 100% of funds will go to presents (clothes and toys) for kids. CCR has donated $100 to start off so please contribute if you can. If you would prefer to bring an unwrapped new toy, that would be fine and greatly appreciated.

2. Friday 12/16 - we are in need of people to help with decorations, trimming tree and hanging garland at the Fountain Inn Activity Center for the event on Saturday. We need any and all help from 10 AM to 3 PM. We are making a beautiful "North Pole Express" for the kids to pass through on the way to pick up their gifts with building materials and decorations donated by local companies. Weekdays it's hard to find free people to help... if you are free, come and let's have some fun!

3. Saturday - 12/17 We need helpers from 6 PM to 8 PM at the Fountain Inn Activity Center. We'll help with the meal and SCCA has been chosen to be the "gift runners" this year! We will be handing out the gifts to the children.

This is really a lot of fun... as I said, without people giving, these kids would be getting very little this year. Remember what Christmas meant to you when you were growing up? THESE kids deserve the same memories! PLEASE consider donating a few hours of your time Saturday evening to help us with this wonderful Christmas cause. THANK YOU!! I'll have more info and a sign up sheet at the meeting but feel free to email me for more information or to let me know you are in. ANYTHING you can do to help is very much appreciated by many. Dagmar, TJ, Keri and I will be there and hope to see you too!

We do not have a special speaker planned for this meeting but we will recap events over the last month, run over calendar for next years events, cover Year End Banquet plans, explain CCR BOD elections, and have some special "Year End Recognition gifts" for a few of our SWCCCR members like Tim Olsen, Steve Hampton, Paula Finger, Steve Eckerich and several others. You may be one so please... don't miss it.

Attachments:

[tedebayer]

Thanks for the group that came Thursday night to the SWCCCR Meeting. I wasn't expecting many to come with holidays, shopping, etc. When I arrived at QS & L there was one car in the parking lot... a silver Elise. I went in our private meeting room and Ron was sitting all by himself drinking a beer wondering if we cancelled the meeting and no one told him! ;D Group kept trickling in and we ended up with 24 people!

We had reports on upcoming events, Clemson Club's activities and plans for our CCR Annual awards banquet. Then we took the opportunity to thank some of our regular attendees and contributors to our club. Scott Franklin, John Finger, Roy Erikson, Steve Eckerich, Ron Wilcox and Steve Hampton were recognized and we had another member tell a little bit about each of them. Whether it was racing related or just part of their life, each story told something about what drives their passion.

There are some really unique stories that have come out of our group...
* one guy attended a SWCCCR meeting three years ago, we talked him to autocrossing his new car at the CCR Novice school. He's now running track events regularly and thinking about asking Santa for belts and gear so he can hillclimb.

* another moved south from the Northeast where he used to road race. He attended a SWCCCR meeting four years ago, started autocrossing, ran Track Trials and, now? He is headed for driver's School next spring at Roebling.

* another was a multiple hillclimb "King of the Hill" that retired from the sport in '95. He's now back running hills and he has not lost his touch.

* another member drug a disassembled A mod car through moves to six houses and 3 states. After attending meetings, he got the "fire", got his car together and ran several autocrosses this year.

* several that have attended our meetings for over 3 years have run Lemons and/or Chump Car races during 2011.

* one attended his first meeting with us 3 years ago and is planning a run at Solo Nationals this year.

* another is thinking about making a shot at Pike's Peak.

There's lots of other "people stories". We meet more to chat, network and socialize than "hold a meeting". A lot of laughs and a lot of FUN. It's been fun for Scott & for me to hold these chapter meetings and see old road racers come out of the woodwork (like Fred Thomas, Joe Hooker, Tom Buto, and Henry Paine), new young road racers (like Fletcher Wullfe), old hillclimbers (like John Finger and Steve Cooke), young hillclimbers (like TJ and Ari Suprenant), old autocrossers (like Roy Erikson and Bill Giffin), cranky old engineers (like Steve Hampton) and young ones (like Steven Cagle, Deborah Hood and Shaun Barrett), young autocrossers (like the Clemson students who attend our meetings regularly)...and people who just love sports cars and motorsports. We've had as many as 75 at one meeting and as few as 10 in the early days... it was four and a half years ago when we started SWCCCR.

It's been a great year and we are looking forward to 2012 and continuing to grow the chapter. Thanks to all for your support, to our region for making meetings like these possible and to Quaker Steak & Lube for providing us with a great automotive themed meeting room.

Merry Christmas and See you in January!