We had a very…
…successful first two days of the Yearbook shoot, and plan to hold it again to make sure we get everyone memorialized in digital form. This is our first year’s attempt at this, and like anything we try that’s new, it’s a lot of learning, but it went fairly well…not like in college when trying something new could result in weeks of antibiotics.
Cars lining up for the shoot in groups of three.
Some commented in social media on the lack of spectators, and that was entirely intentional, which is why we didn’t advertise exact times or make a big announcement. It’s also why sign up was a two step process and not just online. Remember, we’re still prohibited from gatherings of fifty people or more.
We know we will still get hate mail from the grocery bleachers no matter what we do, but we managed to strike a balance between common sense, and well, less common sense. Someone always has to be the raisin in the cinnamon roll and virtue signal while adding nothing to anything. I’ve never met anyone who says, “Oh, it’s the raisins I love.” Well, same with virtue signalers.
A very special thanks to Amanda Rosbrook, our newest Thug who did a massive amount of behind the scenes work to pull this off and it would have been difficult without her huge contribution in time. She joined us from her other car gig, and with her came a huge amount of influence and additional participation. Amanda is a critical part of keeping E@RTC’s top of the mind awareness in the car community and we’re lucky to have her help. Thank you Amanda!
Amanda trying on Lunch Box’s new jacket.
She also put together the swag bags and set up a stuffing line at her house that we all attended. No, a “stuffing line” wasn’t a buffet you missed for those of you from Wisconsin. Wisconsin should change their license plates from, “The Dairy State” to “When can we eat?”
Amanda also rounded up the swag and we have a lot of organizations to thank who donated something for our one event this year…but stay tuned on that as I’ll write something about what’s ahead.
The stuffing team consisted of Blake, Jason, Amanda and me and we got it done in a couple of hours.
Thank you!
The stupendous volunteers, known as the illustrious Parking Thugs dove on the project and did their usual outstanding job and we can never thank them enough, even if we recorded “thanks” and looped it a million times. Wouldn’t that get annoying? It’s fun to see everyone and have a few laughs again. Thanks guys for everything!
Thanks to all the photographers and Spencer for coordinating them. We look forward to seeing your great work in images. Thanks Jason Tang for all the behind-the-scenes stuff. The cool thing about the Thugs is that they are made up of such great leaders, that they all know what needs to be done when they arrive and they make it happen. It runs smoothly because of them! We will write more about the photographers when the photos come out.
John Rodrigues, and Spencer Leamer were working long hours behind the scenes managing the emails, car criteria, and massive amount of correspondence. Thank you!
What us Thugs all have in common is that we all fell out of trees a lot growing up. I have to admit, it’s had career influence.
Thank you Sponsors!
Redmond Town Center also paved the way for not just this but a commitment for next season. They also provided $10.00 gift cards for everyone who participated and took good care of our volunteers. Thank you Courtney and Chris for all your help pulling this together. RTC was hit badly by the shutdown and so we want to do all we can to help everyone at the mall get back on their feet. It’s a nice place to shop, and it’s all open air! It’s when the outdoor malls have the advantage.
From there, we had Park Place LTD who gave everyone a car wash coupon and for those of you who don’t know. This isn’t like some cheap auto car wash they toss in with a tank of gas, no-no, this is a real modern hand wash and dry and a great place to peruse cars. PPL has been a supporter of us for a very long time and we hope you thank them for their support when you stop by. They are also the Aston Martin and Lotus dealer along with a lot of other interesting cars, so swing on by if you’re itching to buy something rare and exotic.
We also had $25.00 off from Right Away Tire which is Blake Siebe’s company. Blake has been a part of E@RTC from the day we started. Right Away Tire isn’t like anything else. They come right to you with a new set of shoes for your car. Just the time savings alone is massive! Blake also donated $25.00 in maps from his app Rallista.app which is the new enthusiasts route app for your phone.
Avants supplied everyone with copies of their new magazine and a one year membership as a prize. Many Avants members are also regulars at E@RTC and we like working with Avants and Adam Cramer. Adam has done a terrific job of building a car community. Thank you Adam!
America’s Car Museum provided us with two-for-one entrance cards, in addition to a one year membership as a prize. They are now open again, so please go and visit when you have the chance. They have been a great supporter of us over the past few years.
Hagerty supplied the bags and sunglasses and a prize of one year membership to Hagerty Driver’s Club. We thank them for that too. Hagerty has long been a supporter of all things related to car shows and the complexity of insuring collector cars.
Metropolitan Detail also supplied a car wash as an additional prize. Thank you for your support and participation over the years. They too have been with us from the very start. Many of our participants of E@RTC are huge fans.
Griots also supplied catalogs and through Avants supplied what product they could. They also supplied us with the mack-daddy door prize of an elliptical correct and protect kit! Griots has always been a supporter and we’re always happy to support them too.
What’s Next?
We got a big commitment from Redmond Town Center for our 2021 season and more details will come out soon. It looks like we’re going to be staying and they came through for us. We will do our best to make E@RTC something even bigger.
This leads to another decision we’ve made. After talking to so many of you, we’ve decided that we’re going to do a pop-up event as soon as this is over and well before the start of our new season. You read that right. The first chance we get, on a nice clear day, once this is all behind us, we guess sometime in January, on that super cold day, we will do a quick E@RTC pop-up just so we can all say hello. It will be like a flash mob with shitty singing and dancing, and we’ll all leave hypothermic, but we will have some laughs. It won’t last the full two hours unless we have barrel fires, and that won’t happen.
We still have another photo shoot to complete, along with going out to the collections, and we hope to get all that wrapped up in the next few weeks.