On April 16, 2016, the Friends hosted the annual meeting along with an auction to raise funds to support the restoration of the Thumb Agricultural Museum. The evening started with a social hour followed by a wonderful dinner catered by McDonald’s Food and Family Center.
The 120 attendees were treated to a showing of the new historical DVD “The Thumb Octagon Barn Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” along with the first edition of the Thumb Quilt Trail DVD highlighting 21 of the 42 sites on the trail.
Our President, Rose Putnam, spoke of the importance of volunteers and their contributions to the success of our project. This seemed to be an appropriate theme as this was “National Volunteer Week.” The Executive Committee, committee chairs and all volunteers were applauded for their service.
Not to be left out was our “Music Man”, Arlen Bannick of Bad Axe, who was recognized for his years of dedication playing music at many events at the Thumb Octagon Barn since the very first year. Arlen has played the guitar since the age of 16 and continues to share his talents at the golden age of 94. Arlen was unable to attend the annual meeting and was later presented the award by Rose Putnam. Please note in the background of the photo all the plaques and special photos. Congratulations, Arlen.
The fun continued with a new type of raffle at the suggestion of Dennis Anderson. With the help of several bakers from the Friends group, three ceramic cookie jars were filled with homemade cookies and then raffled off. The proud winners were Paul and Pauline Findlay, Helen Larson, and Carol Caverly.
The Findlay’s donated their prize back and the cookie jar was then auctioned off to the highest bidder. Paul is a great supporter and has his many talents. He gave the invocation before our meal. He also provides volunteer hours in the Grain Elevator and shares the stories of life on the farm and the importance of grain elevators.
Now things were really rolling as Marty Osentoski stepped up to the podium and took microphone in hand to pit friend against friend for goodies like apple pie, lemon merengue pie, raspberry pie, chocolate peanut clusters, fresh honey and maple syrup and chocolate covered pretzels. Homemade items were abundant-quilts, a fabulous wooden tray, hand crafted banks, just to name a few. Did I mention that Marty donates his services?
With the support of all those present, we were able to raise over $4,000.00. Many thanks goes to all those volunteers who made this possible!
