Greg & Margie Harrop (20694)
Florida State Directors
Well as you know in our country and here in the State of Florida, we have experienced some major storms. Many of our families and campgrounds are in the rebuilding stages and becoming “Strong” again. We can only hope and pray for a better year ahead.
Our rallies are up and kicking and we are having some great turnouts. We can’t say enough about our members who have “Volunteered” as “Rally Hosts & Co-Hosts.” They are doing an outstanding job in putting together some great fun, fellowship, and meals for our members to enjoy. We would like our chapter members to think about volunteering as a host or co-host. If you have never hosted a rally, start by co-hosting; our experienced members will be there to help y’all out and not only that, but you will enjoy the experience. Y’all don’t have to plan a lot to keep our members happy.
We want to thank each of our chapters for hosting some great luncheons each month in their area. Manatees hold theirs in Jacksonville, Pelicans in the Fort Myers area and the Sea Turtles in the Lakeland area. This is a great time for our NKK members to meet up, have some great fellowship and of course FOOD. Not only that but they have put together some fantastic rallies the past few months. We will let them tell y’all about their great events.
Check out newmarkountryklub.com (Klub Calendar – all events) and sign up for your next adventure. And don’t forget to check out the caravans and other special events.
Margie & I had the pleasure of being your Co-Hosts for the 2023 Tampa SuperShow, and we would like to talk a little about this Special Event. As some of y’all know personally, through emails from NKK or through the grapevine, there were some major electrical issues. When your team of Newmar Volunteers (Gary & Wanda Smith, Steve & Joanne Wyble, Carl & Gayle Webber, Gene & Grace Failmezger and Margie & I) arrived to set up the parking, we hit the ground running to set up your Newmar Kountry Klub parking area. We plot out the parking area and NKK tent (which by the way is sponsored by North Trail RV, Ft Myers) and it usually takes 4-5 days depending on the weather. We had one day of rain, so we had to go back and paint over the parking area again. Thank goodness we had our little red flags with parking numbers to help us with the repainting.
Now, I would like to talk a little about the electrical issues. A “BIG SHOUT OUT” goes to our Host, Gary Smith, Region Five Director, who was in meetings and on the phone with the fairgrounds daily trying to get electric for our attendees. This was a mess not only for our rally but for the Tampa RV Show fairgrounds in itself. Gary worked hard on this daily and even through the night. Finally, as we were parking our attendees, the electricians were getting some electric to the motorhomes. Again, Gary was on top of this issue trying to make sure everyone had electric. I also want to give a “BIG SHOUT OUT” to Carl Webber, our North Carolina/South Carolina State Director, who was our electrical contact for the rally. Carl was up all hours of the night getting our electrical issues solved and even getting more electrical cords installed for our attendees that did not have electric.
Without Gary and Carl on top of these electrical issues, the Newmar Kountry Klub Tampa SuperShow would not have been the successful rally that it was. So, as you can see it takes a “Big Team” to make this rally happen and we could not do it without all the many volunteers that stepped up and assisted in making this rally a success.
Now my job as Commissioner of the Newmar Kountry Klub Tampa SuperShow 2023 Cornhole Tournament was easy. Just put out the cornhole boards and “they will come.” We had a great tournament with our 2022 Champions Gary Smith & Elmer Yoder showing up for the tournament. Tommy Rygiel and Rich Araujo came to play this year and won 2 out of 3 games for the Championship against Gary & Elmer. There were some hard-fought matches throughout the day’s event. Ron Llewellyn and Chuck Steenwyk came in third place. Just so y’all know there will be another tournament next year, so practice, practice, practice and let’s have some fun.
Margie & I had another successful Florida Social at the Tampa SuperShow. Our International Directors Ron & Wanda Llewelyn, Members-at-Large Evan & Debbie Hughes, Region Five Directors Gary & Wanda Smith, Region Six Directors Chuck & Michelle Steenwyk, Michigan State Directors Marv & Von Visser, Arizona/Utah State Directors Duane Paige & Laurie Hunt, Indiana State Directors Steve & Phyllis Thornburg, New York State Directors John & Diane Svatek, and North Carolina/South Carolina State Directors Carl & Gayle Webber, along with other chapter officers from other states were in attendance. We had our Chapter Officers from the Manatees Laura Baker & Jeanne Bateman, the Pelicans Tim & Connie Buchholz, Susan & Gary Duschesneau, Gerry & Alan Smith, Jim & Mary Kennedy and the Sea Turtles Bill & Eileen Berg, Debbie & Bill Smith, and Rolf & Anne Kuhns were all present, and they did an outstanding job in recruiting 25 new members for their respective chapters. We had 80 members show up for the social and of those 36 were first timers.
We also can’t leave out the Newmar Tech’s that were on site, working on our coaches. We cannot say enough about how they did their job and kept our coaches up and running. We have talked with some other brand of coach owners that were at the Tampa SuperShow and they couldn’t believe that Newmar sends their tech’s down to Florida to work on our coaches. Like Newmar says: “When you know the difference.”
Remember, “The best part of any journey is the people we meet along the way.” We can be reached at gmh4369@gmail.com Greg’s cell: 954-914-8335.