Well it’s time to…
…kick the cord out of the wall socket on another season. There is considerable rain in the forecast for this Saturday, and next Saturday, and even if it’s nice after that, well, it will be just too damn cold that early in the morning. Let’s get real, it’s going to rain until July. I know this is more disappointing than Nickelback, but you’ll make it until April 1, 2023 on our first weather delay of 2023. It’s time to go make soup.
The season is permanently over for that yellow Superleggara dude who doesn’t think we understand exotic cars. (As if we don’t have any ourselves.) That’s like telling Colonel Sanders he doesn’t understand chicken. Or that Madonna doesn’t understand condoms. You’re banned, not just for bad behavior but silly arguments about bad behavior. We wish we didn’t have to ban anyone, but we always going to put the safety and integrity of the event ahead of everything.
We have so many people to thank for this season. It begins with those of you who love E@RTC and have supported us and have always had our back when someone tried to create a problem. It’s heartwarming for all of us to know you’re there. You’re like a warm blanket on a cold day. You’re like a good sausage with scrambled eggs. No, you’re like bail money after saying “hold my beer.” You’re like a fresh bag of Cheetos on movie night. You’re like a good ointment.
We want to thank everyone at Fairbourne Properties and Redmond Town Center and CLO Marketing for their support. Chris and everyone at Fairbourne has placed great trust in us to manage our own event and we’re glad they are behind us. They help cover some of our costs in addition to allowing us to use the mall. We love the folks at RTC security who help us set up and keep it all running smoothly.
We’ve also had terrific support from all the stores at Redmond Town Center and it goes a long way if you support them. We’ve always kept the event free of charge with their support, so please pay it forward and support these stores. It matters to everyone in and around Redmond.
We also want to thank Redmond PD and the City of Redmond for helping us keep a great event going for the greater good of the community. Not only do we intend to be the best show in the US, we also want it to remain the best community ambassadors, and this requires help from everyone.
Next we have to thank our participants who bring out their cars. You’re the foundation of all this including the spectators who help draw participants. All of you deserve a giant thanks for keeping the event rolling all these years. We get a lot of mail telling us how grateful people are to get the opportunity to see these cars in person.
Now, for those volunteers, our beloved Thugs! As always, they are extraordinary people, each and every one, and well worth getting to know if you come to the events. They are the real deal, and very dedicated to making it the best possible event. We can’t do this without their help and it’s longer hours than you see on a Saturday morning.
We also get a lot of email in a week, and I’d like to thank all of those volunteers who helped answer those messages on our theme weekends. We answer every message we get. There are still gray areas in our criteria and so we get a lot of questions from those who want to participate or argue about a car. Our mail traffic grows every year and it’s become a big job.
We also have to thank Sean who works the sorting hat for all he puts up with at the entrance. He gets more poop than the Woodland Park Zoo and he still is there every Saturday morning with a smile on his face. Heck he gets more crap than a construction site Sani-Can.
Jason Bourriague deserves a giant thanks and has been managing the volunteers for a long time. It’s a lot of behind the scenes work to coordinate the volunteers and keep the group together. It’s a huge job and he’s outstanding at it in every way! He’s a critical piece of our operation for sure.
There is also a big shout out to Vic and Andre for still volunteering after all these years and being a part of E@RTC from the very beginning along with me. Andre sends out our text messages in case you were wondering.
We have a lot of volunteers who contribute outside of “day-of” and all are listed on our volunteer page, which will be updated soon to include more info about their contributions in 2022. It’s not just showing up and putting on a t-shirt. There are meetings, lots of planning, radios and equipment to manage, social media to coordinate. Of course we also have Jason Tang out there to get some great shots. Jason has also been with us from the beginning as a spectator before joining us as a Thug. What an amazing group!
Here are the thirty-six volunteers who helped us in 2022-
Cameron Balazic, Jason Bourriague, Cory Browning, Tyler Brunkhorst, Scott Carlson, Chelsea Chichester, Andre Cunningham, Jared Eades, Ashley Eades, Sarah Floyd, Matt Fraser, William Goings, Ian Goralnick, Spencer Leamer, Sean McDonough, Rich McKee, Davis Mock, John Morley, Tom Nault, Grant Patteson, Dave Prevede, Lincoln Prevedel, Bill Ritchie, John Rodrigues, Robert Roppo, Amanda Rosbrook, Todd Sanders, Diver Dave Schneider, Kevin Shellenberger, Matthew Shimon, Lindsay Stevens Lichtsinn, Jason Tang, Kristoff Telegdy, Vic Tiscareno, Alden Wester, Sarah Ann
There are some others outside of the volunteer group who have done a lot to support us with donations to the Thugs for stuff that makes us fat, and places to meet, and rather than write about that here, I’ll put it in an upcoming blog. There are these things that go on within E@RTC that you should all know about. I’d also like to put up our stats for the season and all of that will be up soon.
We resume again on April 1, 2023, assuming good weather. If you’ve read this far, thank you for putting up with my writing, my occasional typos, and my love of a good laugh. The Newsy blog continues!