FALL MEETING ACTIVITIES AND AREA ATTRACTIONS
The 2022 fall Semi-Annual Meeting is scheduled for September 28 – October 1 at the Blue Chip Hotel and Casino located in Michigan City, Indiana. Note the property has two hotels on site. The nightly rate for a room at the Blue Chip Standard Hotel will be $109.00. The nightly rate for the newer Spa Blue Hotel will be $119.00. Note the Spa Blue hotel is located closer to the Trade Room and meeting functions. Breakfast is NOT included. For room reservations call 1-888-879-7711. Deadline for reservations at the MWTCA rate is September 9. The rate is good three days prior to and three days following the meeting. Make sure you mention MWTCA.
The men’s display theme will be “Small Hand Planes”. Brian Bancroft in charge of displays, will be expanding your opportunity to display your treasures with ‘Show & Tell’. A different tool will be featured at each meet. The tool for the Michigan City meet will be the interesting and hard to find plumb bobs. All who want to participate are asked to bring only your unique plumb bobs. These should be special in some way: old, or rare, or excellent condition, or have a significance in some way. Six tables will be positioned in the display area where you may place your items. There are only two requirements: one will be to prepare a card describing what the plumb bob is and why it is special. The other is to include your name. (And you may want to attach the card to the plumb bob.) There will be no judging and there will be no awards given. This is for fun! The whole idea is to get treasures out into the open, so others can see and enjoy them too! Please plan to participate. We will have a sizable area for tool trading and displays so plan on bringing lots of tools for sale and trade.
Registration is Wednesday September 28 from 2-6 PM. You can expect up to dozen rooms will be open Wednesday for in room tool trading. Once again we will “kick off” the meeting with a Welcome Dinner at 6 PM with a light meal so don’t forget to register for this function. The Tailgating will begin early Thursday morning (bring a flashlight) weather permitting. Be aware that there is NO BACKUP plan should it be raining.
Two tours are scheduled for Thursday. Tour #1 Departs 9:15AM for Laporte County Historical Society Museum in Laporte. The museum hosts a major gun collection, vintage autos along 14 rooms covering 100+ years of history. Tour continues to Garwood Orchards which has been family run for 180 years featuring seasonal fruits and vegetables. Tour returns to hotel at 12.55 pm. Tour #2 departs at 1:15 pm for the Studebaker Museum in South Bend. The museum contains a number of national treasures including Lincoln’s carriage. Tour #2 returns to the hotel 4:15 pm.
James Wright will present a program at 2:00 PM on “Tools that are fun-what do they do?” On Thursday evening Paul Van Pervis will present “part II” on the book he co-authored with the late John Wells on Leonard Baily’s years at Stanley Rule and Level 1869-1874. As part of Paul’s presentation he will have several of the planes discussed in the book on display. On Friday the Trade and Display room will open at 6:30 AM for display set up and loading in of tools at 7:00 AM. At 8:30 AM displays will be ready for viewing followed by tool trading at 10 AM. Friday afternoon Jim Ghering will present a program on the “LL Davis Level Company”. The tool auction will get underway at 7:30 PM with the auction preview at 6:30 PM. If you have tools that you would like to sell please give serious thought to bringing them for the auction.
For those members that can only attend on Saturday there is registration for ‘Saturday Only” with the trade room opening at 6:30 AM. The What’s It session will be held in the Men’s Program Room at 10:30 AM. Attendance at the banquet is NOT included with “Saturday Only” registration.
The display theme for the Auxiliary is “My Favorite Things. Make a display to share your Favorite Collection or single piece.
On Thursday at 4:15 p.m. Auxiliary invites everyone to share their thoughts, volunteer or get more information on the “How To’s to participate in semi-annual and local meetings. Thursday, 7:30 p.m. MEET & GREET After brief introductions, we recognize first time attendees. Then SHOW & TELL. Bring projects, recently found treasures, parts of your collections—or share personal stories of. . . whatever is important to you. It’s a time to enjoy and get to know each other better! Friday 2:00 pm June Kucia will lead the discussion on the book “The Order” written by Daniel Silva. A story of a secret catholic society plotting to seize control of the papacy.
On Friday evening the Auxiliary will host “Game Night”.
Saturday the Auxiliary will host a brunch and program. At the time of printing the subject of the program and presenter were not available. Please check the website www.MWTCA.org under Semi-Annual Meetings for more information.
Saturday afternoon features the election of officers for the following year followed by a presentation by Bill Kolm and Lee Kallstrom on the challenges of building your publication, the Gristmill. They will also discuss the challenge of attracting and retaining members.
Saturday evening we will close out the meeting with a banquet and short business meeting.
For more information on our host hotel go to: www.bluechipcasino.com
For information on Michigan City and the surrounding area go to: www.michigancitylaporte.com for information on museums, historic sites, places of interest, antique malls, etc.
We have arranged great programs for you and know you’ll have a great time.
Friendship Botanic Gardens
Explore our 105 acres of hiking trails, paved pathways, an educational children’s garden, a health and wellness garden and more. Hours: Tues-Sun 9am-5pm; Weekends 10am-4pm.
Hesston Steam Museum
This museum, located in the small town of Hesston just outside of LaPorte, features three different operating trains that give everyone a taste of what it was like to ride the rails in times past. Enjoy rides on the Steam Museum’s biggest train – a full-sized Narrow Gauge locomotive of the type that was used to transport both freight and passengers. The largest locomotive at the facility was once used to haul logs out of the mountains in the West. The medium-size vintage Kiddieland train once provided entertainment as part of small amusement parks that thrived from the 1920s into the ’70s. In addition to the train rides, visitors also have the opportunity on various days to see the Hesston Sawmill in operation, learn how a steam crane and steam traction engines work and visit the Rustic Blacksmith Shop.
La Porte County Historical Society Museum
Exhibits include fancy cars, a sports hero, pioneer life, and a murderous legend, plus a huge collection of rare guns. In addition, the museum hosts many special exhibits. The downstairs level houses the W.A. Jones Collection of Ancient Weapons, one of the largest private gun collection in the world. Jones, who owned an iron foundry in Chicago, searched exotic locales around the globe for his purchases. With the gun collection are featured military items from the Civil War and later. Fourteen period rooms reveal what life was like during various time periods in LaPorte County.
Studebaker Museum
The Studebaker National Museum is devoted to sharing the story of the automotive and industrial history of South Bend and the greater region through the display and interpretation of Studebaker vehicles along with related industrial artifacts. The Collection also includes seven objects designated as “National Treasures” including the carriage Abraham Lincoln rode to Ford’s Theatre the night of his assassination, and a carriage used by the Marquis de Lafayette during his farewell tour of United States in 1824.
Old Lighthouse Museum
Original 1858 light station structure, 8 display rooms, Great Lakes history, shipwrecks, era of sailing ships, local history, gift shop and more. Hours: Weds-Sun 1-4pm; closed Mon & Tues and first Fri each month.