5th Annual ALPCA Garden State Meet
I am writing this entry in two parts the first part is the report I sent to the ALPCA discussion list where I described how the meet went. The second part is an observation of the lunch that followed at Charlie Blood's
Well another great Garden State meet has come and gone and this was the best meet yet! This year 52 ALPCA members and their guests gathered at the American Legion Hall Post in Elmwood Park, NJ. This was the farthest south we had the meet, even if it was only a few miles, picked out by Ed Natale. This turned out to be a major hit! Doors opened a little prior to 8 AM to swift trading and a few good laughs. Steve Benson aka 16 Lizards came from Arizona to take the unofficial long distance award for the second year in a row, his partner in plates Mike Glauboch took the drive up from Kentucky and Chuck Bahnor drove out from Indiana. We really do attract members from all over. My co-host for the event was Jason DeCesare who helped in every way possible, getting the food, working the registration desk, correcting my spreadsheets and most importantly driving me to the meet ! Doors were supposed to open at 8AM but a few early birds managed to sneak in a little early. By 9 AM trading was brisk and laughter was heard throughout the hall. Our resident auction Ron Ridolph was overjoyed to find a built in PA system, altho ugh Jason wound up making a few announcements of his own. We had a very successful auction thanks to Marco, Jon Lebowitz, Jim Moini and Elaine Hadjadj, wife of NJ member Xavier Hadjadj, who served as auction secretary! Everyone liked the location so much, we decided to book it for next year mark your calendars now for November 8,2014 when we do it all over again. After the meet a group of us made our way over to Charlie Bloods in nearby Garfield where owner Sal Benanti served hot pizza and cold beers, the bar was decorated with license plates, so I gave Sal an old NJ plate to commemorate what we hope will be a tradition for many years to come!
Respectfully Submitted
Justin Mattes ALPCA#6748
ALPCA Garden State Region
Well another great Garden State meet has come and gone and this was the best meet yet! This year 52 ALPCA members and their guests gathered at the American Legion Hall Post in Elmwood Park, NJ. This was the farthest south we had the meet, even if it was only a few miles, picked out by Ed Natale. This turned out to be a major hit! Doors opened a little prior to 8 AM to swift trading and a few good laughs. Steve Benson aka 16 Lizards came from Arizona to take the unofficial long distance award for the second year in a row, his partner in plates Mike Glauboch took the drive up from Kentucky and Chuck Bahnor drove out from Indiana. We really do attract members from all over. My co-host for the event was Jason DeCesare who helped in every way possible, getting the food, working the registration desk, correcting my spreadsheets and most importantly driving me to the meet ! Doors were supposed to open at 8AM but a few early birds managed to sneak in a little early. By 9 AM trading was brisk and laughter was heard throughout the hall. Our resident auction Ron Ridolph was overjoyed to find a built in PA system, altho ugh Jason wound up making a few announcements of his own. We had a very successful auction thanks to Marco, Jon Lebowitz, Jim Moini and Elaine Hadjadj, wife of NJ member Xavier Hadjadj, who served as auction secretary! Everyone liked the location so much, we decided to book it for next year mark your calendars now for November 8,2014 when we do it all over again. After the meet a group of us made our way over to Charlie Bloods in nearby Garfield where owner Sal Benanti served hot pizza and cold beers, the bar was decorated with license plates, so I gave Sal an old NJ plate to commemorate what we hope will be a tradition for many years to come!
Respectfully Submitted
Justin Mattes ALPCA#6748
ALPCA Garden State Region
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