Gaylord's Opryland Resort; FINAL PLANS
As of this date, based on pre-registrations, our annual reunion is shaping up to be the best ever. Here's all the information you will need to have a great time, and to help us meet or exceed our Fund Raising goals.
It's all about Fund Raising this year! We are relying on two major events, our 1st Annual Golf Tournament, and our annual Fund Raiser Dinner, to generate at least $8,000.00 in net contributions, which will be donated to the FMDA as “seed money” for Operation GREEN DRAGON (see articles and ads in the latest issue of The Old Breed News for more details). In addition, we are hoping to get a lot more reunion attendees involved (as volunteers) in the mechanics of running the reunion. We are hoping that each reunion attendee will volunteer to work, at various jobs, for at least 2 hours. That way, rather than a handful of folks spending most of their time at the reunion working, all of us pitch in and spend a little time helping out. Here's what we need people to do. When you first arrive at the reunion, check in with either me or Gerry Regan. Pamela and I will be arriving at the reunion late on Tuesday afternoon. We need:
1. Volunteers for the 1/5 Vietnam Veterans information table, adjacent to the FMDA Reunion Registration area; hand out flyers and sell tickets for the Golf Tournament and the Fund Raiser Dinner. EARLY ARRIVERS: I would like to see someone there as early as Monday of reunion week, through Thursday. I would like to see one or two 1/5 Vietnam Veterans, in say 2-hour shifts, manning this information table at all times while the FMDA Reunion Registration is open.
NOTE: “Uniform of the Day” for all volunteer jobs are the green knit reunion shirt and cammy cover. We'll have plenty of cammy covers available for purchase at the reunion.
2. Volunteers for the 1/5 Vietnam Veterans Hospitality Suite, starting Wednesday morning - through Saturday afternoon. Sell fund-raiser items, register each attendee and confirm address, phone number, email address, etc. are current; hand out flyers and sell tickets for our Golf Tournament through Wednesday morning, and for our Fund Raiser dinner through Thursday afternoon; hand out dinner tickets to those who pre-paid, etc. 2-hour shifts.
3. Volunteers for the Golf Tournament - Wednesday afternoon - we need as many volunteers we can get, with green shirts and cammy covers, to “host” a hole by staying at tee boxes and/or drive beverage carts. Bennie Benware, my old RTO from Vietnam days, has volunteered to head up the effort to secure the beverages and sell them to the golfers out on the golf course. We need three more volunteers to help sell beer and sodas out on the golf course to our golfers. Those of you who can attend the golf tournament and ride the beverage carts, please call Bennie at 773-582-7358 and sign up with him. As of this date, Hillous York, our point man in Franklin, KY, estimates we will have at least 60 golfers, and he has also obtained corporate sponsorships for a Hole-in-One contest (a car), as well has “Hole Host” sponsorships for every hole, at $100.00 per hole (plus a few extra hundred bucks). We will have our pickup at the reunion, so Bennie and I will make the purchases of the beer, sodas and ice and transport them to the course; the wonderful folks at Kenny Perry's Country Creek Golf Course are providing us with the beverage carts, free of charge. We will certainly need to “car pool” for this event, so those of you who will be arriving on Wednesday morning at the latest, and are willing to help out and have a rental car (or have driven), please let us know.
4. We are still looking for corporate sponsors, donations, to help us with prizes at the golf tournament and raffle prizes at the dinner. Please call me at 828-697-6159 or 828-243-8708 (cell) if you have something for the dinner; please call Hillous York at 270-647-2619 if you have something to help out with the golf tournament. Please call Gerry Regan if you want to help out in some other way, or have interest in supporting the Memorial Service, at 215-859-3669.
Excellent hospitality suite arrangements have been made by Gerry Regan, and it looks like we're going to have plenty of room to gather. If you haven't already done so, when you make your reservations at the hotel ask for your room to be nearby Gerry Regan's, so you will also be close to our hospitality suite. As the reunion gets going, we'll have information and signs up, to help make it easy to find things. Gaylord's Opryland Hotel and Resort is huge, so your best bet is to find your hotel rooms, then find the FMDA Reunion Registration area; go ahead and registerfor the reunion, and post your name on the Unit board under 1/5, and then look for the 1/5 Vietnam Veterans information table. At a minimum, there will be information there to help you find our hospitality suite. Those of you who have pre-paid for our Fund Raiser Dinner, your dinner tickets will be waiting for you in our hospitality suite. You will need tickets for the dinner / dance, so please hold on to them.
Schedule of Events:
Tuesday, 26 August 2008 :
Set up a 1/5 Vietnam Veterans “information table” adjacent to the FMDA Registration Area. We need volunteers to spend 2-hour shifts (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) handing out flyers and selling tickets to our golf tournament on Wednesday, and our Fund Raiser Dinner / Dance on Thursday night. ALL attendees at the FMDA Reunion are welcome to attend all 1/5 Vietnam Veterans events, and they are welcome to join us in our hospitality suite, starting on Wednesday.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008 :
Secure the 1/5 Vietnam Veterans Hospitality Suite area. We need volunteers to handle event registration(s) and to hand out information. Make sure everyone signs in with current address, phone number, email address, and that they post their FMDA sticker on the Unit Boards out front.
1/5 Vietnam Veterans Fund-Raising Golf Tournament, to benefit the FMDA Operating Fund / GREEN DRAGON “seed money.” See Attached Flyer!
Thursday, 28 August 2008 :
1/5 Vietnam Veterans Annual Fund-Raising Dinner, Auction and Dance, to benefit the FMDA Operating Fund / GREEN DRAGON “seed money.”
Location: The World-Famous Nashville Palace, within walking distance of the Reunion HQ Hotel & Resort. Our event is confirmed for 6:00 pm to Midnight, in their “back room.” Dinner will be served starting at 7:00 pm, and our program will start at around 8:15. Many prizes will be raffled off, and fun will be had by all. A live band will start playing after the program is completed, and there will be dancing and fun until midnight. We are estimating that at least 100 tickets will be sold to this event. Those of you who have pre-paid, please pick up your tickets when you register in our hospitality suite.
Saturday, 30 August 2008 :
1/5 Vietnam Veterans Annual Memorial Service, Saturday, 30 August 2008 - Contact Gerry Regan to volunteer; final details will be available at our hospitality suite.
FMDA Banquet - Saturday night in the big banquet hall. As of this date, I have received checks for this event from eleven (11) people who will sit together at a 1/5 Vietnam Veterans' table. Including: Michael Laswell, Bennie Benware, Bruce Sprinkle, Richard and Susan Schollenberger, A. J. and Sherry Sherouse, and Gerry, Joann, Mark, and Amanda Regan. I will send the checks and reservations form with your choice of meal to the FMDA today. In addition, I have heard from many of you who have indicated that you sent your money directly to the FMDA, and have requested to be seated at a 1/5 Vietnam Veterans' table. In addition, I have asked the FMDA to make sure that ALL of the 1/5 Vietnam Veterans tables be situated together. Hopefully these actions will result in a Saturday night banquet that will be enjoyed by all. Since Pamela and I will be leaving the reunion early on Friday morning to go visit our son, Brent, we will have to rely on your “after-action reports” to find out how the banquet went, but we usually have a great time at the banquet.
Post Reunion :
Please do send us your “after-action reports” either via mail or email (see contact information, below). Let us know about any problems that occurred, and thoughts about improvement for next year. In particular, send us your reunion photos. The next issue of our newsletter, The Fourragere, will go out before the end of September, and we plan to dedicate a large amount of space to the reunion, especially photos.
See you all in Nashville!
Semper Fidelis!
Nicholas Warr
Past President & Chapter Treasurer