Post by thatbusguy on Aug 31, 2010 20:14:28 GMT -5
In this issue:
* Bus Boo October 1 - 3, 2010 at Camp Blodgett, West Olive, MI
* B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Boulder)
* Grand Rogue Campground
* West Michigan Burn Survivor Car Show
* New BBtB Website
Hello Fellow Bus Pilots,
We hope your summer is going well. Now that the shadows are getting longer and the nights are getting cooler we turn our attention to the best time of the year to go camping! The Fall is the best time to get out and enjoy the outdoors with good friends and we hope everyone is making plans to enjoy this special time of year. Hopefully your Fall plans include joining us at Bus Boo the first weekend in October. You may wonder why we are sending the August Newsletter at the end of August. Our email service allows us to send one message per month. So we timed it so that we would be able to send two messages close to the October 1st event.
Bus BOO 2010!
Camp Blodgett has invited us to host our event on their property on the shores of Lake Michigan at their beautiful summer camp. Our new location is amazing! There are 60 acres of land for us to spread out and set up on. On the property there is a rock climbing wall, high ropes course and lots of hiking trails. Kirk Park is an amazing public beach just to the South of us about 3/4 of a mile down a bike path. Like previous Bus BOO's we are going to have a Halloween costume contest for adults, kids and best site decoration. Kids will trick or treat from bus to bus. We will also be giving out the coveted Chili Cup (The Gas Bag Award) to the best chili at the chili cook off. This year we will not have electricity so plan on preparing chili over the community fire pit or over propane stoves.
We are excited about this new relationship with another non-profit organization. Camp Blodgett is a non-profit organization that serves kids in Kent County with an emphasis on educational achievement, leadership and community service in all of their year-round programs. In addition to summer camp, Camp Blodgett provides after school clubs and a Young Leaders group, serving kids from 7 to 18. Over 92% of the kids in their year-round programs are growing up in poverty and Camp Blodgett sees education as the means for these children to find their way out of poverty. Camp Blodgett serves over 500 kids plus 50 youth each summer at camp, 100 kids in after school Camp Blodgett Clubs, and 20 kids in the Young Leaders program. Camp Blodgett has been providing services to less fortunate kids in West Michigan since 1921.
Things you should know if you are coming:
1. Address: Camp Blodgett, 10451 Lakeshore Drive
West Olive, MI 49460 www.campblodgett.org/index.html
2. Friday check in time is 2:00pm
3. Primitive Camping with no electricity or water. There is a new bath house with nice showers and restroom facilities on the main campus across the road from where we will be camping.There will be porta-potties on site.
4. No generators or open fires.
5. Dogs are welcome if they are friendly, do well in crowds and are cleaned up after.
6. Alcohol is permitted by obnoxious drunks are not. This is a family friendly camping event so please be respectful of others.
7. One time fee of $25 per person for everyone over the age of 21 for the weekend.
8. Everyone is welcome!
B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Boulder):
Make your mark on Buses By the Beach's new location. We are constructing a community fire pit and would love to have everyone bring a unique boulder to stack around the fire pit. Feel free to decorate it if you feel moved to do so. Or you can just sport it old school like a plain rock. Bring a boulder that is between 12"-14" across that can easily be handled and stacked.
Grand Rogue Campground:
Below is some news about Grand Rogue Campground. The message below went to their email list and for those that may not have heard I thought I would reprint Tom and Joan's message. Tom and Joan have been excellent hosts of our Buses By the Beach events for many years. They are wonderful people and with much love we wish them all the best.
To all of our guests of the Grand Rogue Campgrounds…
After many days and hours of conversation, thoughts and prayers we have made the decision not to reopen the park as you know it for the 2011 season. We always knew this time would come and it is something that we have anticipated with widely mixed emotions. There are many reasons we have decided to stop operations as we have for over thirty five years but the most significant one is the fact that we need a break. Joan has lost both of her
parents in the past two years and Tom lost his father just recently. This has given us reason to reflect on the paths our lives are moving on as well. Before our passion and enthusiasm wanes and we lose the desire to provide the facilities and customer services our guests deserve, we feel it’s time. We have other interests as well and it’s time to pursue some of those too. We have children, grand children and a growing family that we want to be
able to enjoy without having to have them come visit us while we are on the job. Since we both work during the winter months as well as here all summer, our family time has been very limited. Now Joan’s hours are being increased as co-worker positions at her school have been eliminated. We have a very nice home which Tom rarely even sees during the summer. Tom’s mother Donna is still healthy and well but there is a tremendous amount of estate work that needs to be done which she and the family are depending on him to help with. Two of his siblings are now also battling major health issues and we as a family need to support them as well. As far as plans for the Grand Rogue Campgrounds, we would like to say that we hope some time off will refresh us and give us the strength and desire to return to this business however you never know what the future will bring. As many of you know the park does not belong to us, it belongs to the family estate and we have simply been leasing it from the family. There is no pressure from anyone for us to leave and our agreement always has been that we could run the campground for as long as we wished. We plan to stay involved in the campground industry. We are figuring on doing the Encampment, some club and group outings and day camps here for next summer. And we plan to continue offering storage. Tom has a term as President of the State Campground Owners Association to complete and has assumed Briggs Realty where he hopes to continue specializing in the sale of campgrounds. We have also seen several situations where owners have gotten out of the business only to return after a short while with new enthusiasm, ideas and excitement. Que Sera, Sera. Thirty five years is a long time to have held one job but it is a job that has provided us with great joy, memories and friendships that we hope are everlasting. Thank you and God Bless.
Tom and Joan grandrogue@yahoo.com
West Michigan Burn Survivor Car Show:
We are also very sad to report the news about the West Michigan Burn Survivor Car Show. John Merryman has tirelessly worked for 14 years growing the car show into one of the premier car shows in West Michigan. Unfortunately due to personal reasons John is unable to continue to organize the car show anymore. So for now, or until someone else steps up to take over, the car show will be no more. Buses By the Beach have supported the car show for the last eight years and it is a very sad to see this great event come to a close. We wish John the all the best and we thank him on behalf of all the Burn Survivors that benefited from his efforts.
We wishing you many miles of smiles John!
Buses By the Beach New Web Site:
We will be having a new website hopefully coming on line in the upcoming months. Thank you to everyone for being patient. As you know you can not rush perfection. Thank you goes to Billy Hirt and John Meeks for all the hours they have donated to put this excellent website together. In the meantime we will continue to have a one page flier as the website with information about the upcoming event. There are also links so you can sign up for the email list, go to the forum or facebook.
We look forward to seeing everyone at Bus Boo! It will be here before you know it. If you have any questions or need help please feel free to contact Todd at todd@busesbythebeach.com and he would be glad to help.
Wishing you many miles of smiles!!
The Volks at Buses By the Beach.com
volksfolks@busesbythebeach.com
www.busesbythebeach.com
* Bus Boo October 1 - 3, 2010 at Camp Blodgett, West Olive, MI
* B.Y.O.B (Bring Your Own Boulder)
* Grand Rogue Campground
* West Michigan Burn Survivor Car Show
* New BBtB Website
Hello Fellow Bus Pilots,
We hope your summer is going well. Now that the shadows are getting longer and the nights are getting cooler we turn our attention to the best time of the year to go camping! The Fall is the best time to get out and enjoy the outdoors with good friends and we hope everyone is making plans to enjoy this special time of year. Hopefully your Fall plans include joining us at Bus Boo the first weekend in October. You may wonder why we are sending the August Newsletter at the end of August. Our email service allows us to send one message per month. So we timed it so that we would be able to send two messages close to the October 1st event.
Bus BOO 2010!
Camp Blodgett has invited us to host our event on their property on the shores of Lake Michigan at their beautiful summer camp. Our new location is amazing! There are 60 acres of land for us to spread out and set up on. On the property there is a rock climbing wall, high ropes course and lots of hiking trails. Kirk Park is an amazing public beach just to the South of us about 3/4 of a mile down a bike path. Like previous Bus BOO's we are going to have a Halloween costume contest for adults, kids and best site decoration. Kids will trick or treat from bus to bus. We will also be giving out the coveted Chili Cup (The Gas Bag Award) to the best chili at the chili cook off. This year we will not have electricity so plan on preparing chili over the community fire pit or over propane stoves.
We are excited about this new relationship with another non-profit organization. Camp Blodgett is a non-profit organization that serves kids in Kent County with an emphasis on educational achievement, leadership and community service in all of their year-round programs. In addition to summer camp, Camp Blodgett provides after school clubs and a Young Leaders group, serving kids from 7 to 18. Over 92% of the kids in their year-round programs are growing up in poverty and Camp Blodgett sees education as the means for these children to find their way out of poverty. Camp Blodgett serves over 500 kids plus 50 youth each summer at camp, 100 kids in after school Camp Blodgett Clubs, and 20 kids in the Young Leaders program. Camp Blodgett has been providing services to less fortunate kids in West Michigan since 1921.
Things you should know if you are coming:
1. Address: Camp Blodgett, 10451 Lakeshore Drive
West Olive, MI 49460 www.campblodgett.org/index.html
2. Friday check in time is 2:00pm
3. Primitive Camping with no electricity or water. There is a new bath house with nice showers and restroom facilities on the main campus across the road from where we will be camping.There will be porta-potties on site.
4. No generators or open fires.
5. Dogs are welcome if they are friendly, do well in crowds and are cleaned up after.
6. Alcohol is permitted by obnoxious drunks are not. This is a family friendly camping event so please be respectful of others.
7. One time fee of $25 per person for everyone over the age of 21 for the weekend.
8. Everyone is welcome!
B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Boulder):
Make your mark on Buses By the Beach's new location. We are constructing a community fire pit and would love to have everyone bring a unique boulder to stack around the fire pit. Feel free to decorate it if you feel moved to do so. Or you can just sport it old school like a plain rock. Bring a boulder that is between 12"-14" across that can easily be handled and stacked.
Grand Rogue Campground:
Below is some news about Grand Rogue Campground. The message below went to their email list and for those that may not have heard I thought I would reprint Tom and Joan's message. Tom and Joan have been excellent hosts of our Buses By the Beach events for many years. They are wonderful people and with much love we wish them all the best.
To all of our guests of the Grand Rogue Campgrounds…
After many days and hours of conversation, thoughts and prayers we have made the decision not to reopen the park as you know it for the 2011 season. We always knew this time would come and it is something that we have anticipated with widely mixed emotions. There are many reasons we have decided to stop operations as we have for over thirty five years but the most significant one is the fact that we need a break. Joan has lost both of her
parents in the past two years and Tom lost his father just recently. This has given us reason to reflect on the paths our lives are moving on as well. Before our passion and enthusiasm wanes and we lose the desire to provide the facilities and customer services our guests deserve, we feel it’s time. We have other interests as well and it’s time to pursue some of those too. We have children, grand children and a growing family that we want to be
able to enjoy without having to have them come visit us while we are on the job. Since we both work during the winter months as well as here all summer, our family time has been very limited. Now Joan’s hours are being increased as co-worker positions at her school have been eliminated. We have a very nice home which Tom rarely even sees during the summer. Tom’s mother Donna is still healthy and well but there is a tremendous amount of estate work that needs to be done which she and the family are depending on him to help with. Two of his siblings are now also battling major health issues and we as a family need to support them as well. As far as plans for the Grand Rogue Campgrounds, we would like to say that we hope some time off will refresh us and give us the strength and desire to return to this business however you never know what the future will bring. As many of you know the park does not belong to us, it belongs to the family estate and we have simply been leasing it from the family. There is no pressure from anyone for us to leave and our agreement always has been that we could run the campground for as long as we wished. We plan to stay involved in the campground industry. We are figuring on doing the Encampment, some club and group outings and day camps here for next summer. And we plan to continue offering storage. Tom has a term as President of the State Campground Owners Association to complete and has assumed Briggs Realty where he hopes to continue specializing in the sale of campgrounds. We have also seen several situations where owners have gotten out of the business only to return after a short while with new enthusiasm, ideas and excitement. Que Sera, Sera. Thirty five years is a long time to have held one job but it is a job that has provided us with great joy, memories and friendships that we hope are everlasting. Thank you and God Bless.
Tom and Joan grandrogue@yahoo.com
West Michigan Burn Survivor Car Show:
We are also very sad to report the news about the West Michigan Burn Survivor Car Show. John Merryman has tirelessly worked for 14 years growing the car show into one of the premier car shows in West Michigan. Unfortunately due to personal reasons John is unable to continue to organize the car show anymore. So for now, or until someone else steps up to take over, the car show will be no more. Buses By the Beach have supported the car show for the last eight years and it is a very sad to see this great event come to a close. We wish John the all the best and we thank him on behalf of all the Burn Survivors that benefited from his efforts.
We wishing you many miles of smiles John!
Buses By the Beach New Web Site:
We will be having a new website hopefully coming on line in the upcoming months. Thank you to everyone for being patient. As you know you can not rush perfection. Thank you goes to Billy Hirt and John Meeks for all the hours they have donated to put this excellent website together. In the meantime we will continue to have a one page flier as the website with information about the upcoming event. There are also links so you can sign up for the email list, go to the forum or facebook.
We look forward to seeing everyone at Bus Boo! It will be here before you know it. If you have any questions or need help please feel free to contact Todd at todd@busesbythebeach.com and he would be glad to help.
Wishing you many miles of smiles!!
The Volks at Buses By the Beach.com
volksfolks@busesbythebeach.com
www.busesbythebeach.com
