FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] thank you, thank you, thanks for wild BBC party !!!!!!!

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Area Birders:
If  you were at the Bristol Bird Club Regional Christmas Party Saturday night, 
you don't need to be told how exciting that was.  But the rest of you should 
know what you missed.

We had 52 birders turnout for a party that lasted five hours!  President Rack 
Cross wrote down each person's name on a legal pad.  We'll publish the list 
later this week.  Dave and Dee Worley have the list at this time.

Let's have some real thank yous for those of you who worked so hard to pull 
this off:

Bob, Ellen and Charlie Parker welcomed us into their beautiful home and had 
everything just perfect.  We could not have expected more.  Charlie has already 
asked his mother if they can host the party next year ;-)  She wrote and told 
me so !  Charlie is a trooper, isn't he ?

Janice Martin did all of our shopping for drinks, paper plates, plasticware and 
cups.  You  name it.  She was a senior elf managing the gift list as Santa came 
and and turned the party into a riot.  She shopped for gifts for the children 
of birders and was our BBC super santa pal.

Diana Worley was our year-around gift shopper who made sure that there were 
gifts bought all year long in order for santa to care for all of the little 
ones.  Dee is another BBC super santa pal.

Dave Worley who is our ever-loving jolly old elf is the guy who always has the 
big bag of toys.  He has the red face and belly like a bowl full of jelly.  
Actually, if he keeps losing weight, Rack will have to be Santa next year.  
Dave has a sore knee from all the lap sitting he conducted.

Ron Harrington brought a cooler full of ice.  Ron also brought his ukulele and 
provided wonderful music as a house full of people joined in Christmas caroles, 
popular songs and Nina Gates even danced in the kitchen floor while Mary Jane 
Erwin, Wallace Coffey and Ron sang early American folks music.  Ron entertained 
us as a walking vocalist singing all kinds of great numbers room to room.  He 
had a contest with prizes for those families that wanted to jump into a bird 
name quiz.  It was shocking how everyone loved that.  I was astonished.  Ron 
stayed for the late-night cleanup crew.  Ron must have run a ream of copy paper 
with music for those who scrambled to get copies of songs for which they did 
not know all the words.

It was Dexter and Lynda Newman who provided us a state-of-the-mall professional 
Santa Clause suit for Santa to wear for a few hours.   We don't have enough 
money to rent an outfit like that.  It is the absolute best you can ever 
imagine.

The Bristol Tennessee Fire Department provided us with firemen's helmets so 
Larry McDaniel (former Florida Division of Forestry firefighter) could standby 
wearing the helmet and prepared with a fire extinguiser.  Inspector Cross 
(Kingsport City Fire Department) wore a helmet and watched for safety purposes 
as Tennessee Ornithological Society President-Elect Danny Gatty lighted a 
candle to tie our party to the rest of TOS members across the state.

Larry also headed up the cleanup crew, bringing a box of trashbags.  By the 
time we had left the Parkers, the house was nearly spotless and you had to 
actually look very closely to tell we had even had a party there all night.  
Bags of trash were filled from every room and several members took one or two 
bags home with them so the Parker's trashcans were not running over Sunday 
morning.

It was handsdown for the best food ever at a Bristol Bird Club event.  It took 
two rooms to display all the food.  We covered ever available inch of the 
kitchen breakfast nook table, cabinet tops, stove tops and most of the dinning 
room table.  We had different kinds of shrimp dishes, salads beyond 
imagination, pork, great breds, buns and rolls, plate of ever imaginable 
offering.  We spent hours talking about how good the food was.

Wallace worked two weeks determing the 20 best bird discoveries of the year and 
presented the list.  He shopped two days to find the right types of prizes and 
award trophies for all winners.  He shopped for and bought five birdfeeders for 
gifts and had a drawing for a 50 pound bag of sunflower seed won by Larry.  He 
presented the awards and caused trouble all night.

Several members kept the party hype and fun going on Bristol Birds Net. 

Don Holt took the Birder of the Year Plaque to an engraver to have the 2003 
birder of the year award engraved and brought back along with our traditional 
Daffy Duck padded toilet seat to be worn at this year's party by the 2004 
Birder of the Year winner.

President Rack Cross and family drove to Johnson City to personally escort the 
TOS President-Elect's party from the Holiday Inn on North Roan Street to the 
Parker house and introduced them room-by-room to party-goers.

Dan and Laurie Mooney drove up from Knoxville.  Charlie Muise, president of 
Knoxville TOS Chapter came from his home at Maryville.  Ken Dubke and Gaddy 
came from the Chattanooga Chapter of TOS.  We had several members from the 
Russell County Bird Club and the Lee & Lois Herndon Chapter of TOS at 
Elizabethton.

Janet Brown, Joan Harrington, Janice Martin and Ellen Parker coordinated the 
food display and cleaned up spills and the kitchen following the party.

Larry was the coordinator of arrangements between the Parker family and BBC.

When the party was over and it came down to the last discoveries,  We had an 
assortment of pictures, an umbrella, and a couple of dishes that were left 
behind. 
You may e-mail me at wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and claim your loss and come 
to the BBC Christmas Count Planning Meeting to be held on Dec. 21 at the lodge 
next to Steele Creek Park Nature Center to pick up whatever you left behind.  
Any items not claimed and/or picked up by the close of the BBC Dec. 21 meeting 
can be taken by anyone who attends or will be deposited in the nearest park 
trash container.

We want to close by thanking everyone who cooked all the wonderful dishes.  We 
want to say thanks a bundle for all the gifts you bought, wrapped and brought.  
Finally we say thanks for the great party, your Christmas cheers and those of 
you who came from distances up to a 100 miles or more, including the ones who 
came 200 miles from Chattanooga to have a great time.  It was good getting to 
know everyone and sharing our Christmas spirt.

Merry Christmas to one and all.....

Wallace Coffey
on Behalf of the Officers and Leadership
Bristol Bird Club






























  









*************************************************
       BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST
Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at:
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5

This is a regional birding list sponsored by the
Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications 
between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia
and Northeast Tennessee.  
--------------------------------------------------
You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds.
To post to this mailing list, simply send an email
to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send
an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
--------------------------------------------------
       Wallace Coffey, Moderator
         wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
           (423)764-****