Motorfest 6

By Tom O’Donnell

Motorfest 6 was a success.  There were over 60 registered participants and all of them seemed to have had a very good time.  Madeleine and I took a leisurely drive from Palatine to Auburn in my Lincoln.  The Lincoln performed very well.  Connie Vincentini and Candy & Pat Fenner were in the lobby of the motel to give us our registration package.  The hospitality room was set up with goodies to snack on as we renewed our friendships.

Thursday we met in the morning to drive to Fort Wayne.  There were two groups, one that went to the toy factory and the other went to the Fire museum.  We traveled along back roads and saw some nice scenery.  At the toy factory, we split up into two groups and saw the toy cars and tractors being packaged for shipment.  The cars are made of plastic and the components are grouped together for packaging for shipment and sale to the customer.  The customer does the final assembly.  They also showed us their test track, parts department, customer support center and their repair center.

The group that went to the Fire Museum, saw fire equipment that was used in Fort Wayne from the 19th century to the 21st century.  There were also photos of the older equipment and a plaque to honor the firefighters that performed heroic service for the department.

In the evening we went to the Victory Museum for the Welcome Party.  It was a buffet and after a few short speeches, Jerry Vincentini started to auction off the order that the tables would go to get their food.  After the dinner, Dave Stonebraker auctioned off some gift certificates and a couple of craft items. One of the craft items was a carburetor lamp, another was a Ford globe glass inserted into a banjo housing from a Ford. Milly Scheidt made a quilt and that was auctioned off also.

The “Buy a Foot” building fund campaign was announced at the party and several feet were sold.  This campaign asks you to donate the cost of a square foot of the addition to the current museum building for $150.  Your name and your donation will be displayed on a special plaque that honors all of the donors.

Friday some of the people drove their cars on the two and a half hour drive to Kalamazoo, MI Air Zoo.  Madeleine and I stayed in Auburn and visited some of the local museums. Friday night was the cruise in around the Town Square.  Many local residents brought out their cars for our enjoyment.

Saturday we visited a winery for wine tasting and looked around the town for a while.  I took a photo at the Sinclair gas station while some of the other people went over to the Shell station.  In the evening we attended the Farewell Banquet at the country club.  After dinner there was another auction and the Mayor of Auburn presented a plaque to the owner of the car he most wanted in his garage.  It was a very nice black 1953 Mercury convertible from Arizona.  I never did find out if George Walker’s extra radiator was a solution to solving an overheating problem. 

The Motorfest added over $20,000 to the Foundation’s bank accounts.  Madeleine and I plan to go to the next one as we had a lot of fun.