Although built in England, Mini is, after
all, owned by BMW.
The big day arrived, December 4th.
It was sunny and beautiful and we were
ready. Richard and I drove both of our
vehicles. He drove the RS and I drove
the 1986 Targa. (Does anyone see a discrepancy here?) We met the other PNWR
members and thousands of other participants and shoppers at Redmond Town
Center on - OMG - the Eastside. You have
to understand this is equal to a trip to
Outer Mongolia for those of us who live in
Seattle. There were 66/67 Porsches and
32 Minis. Northwest Harvest had arranged boxes so that we could
differentiate the Porsche contributions from the Mini contributions.
The Eastside Harley Owners Club was there filming the proceedings.
(View videos at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXuEuhlrSQ)
It was chaos. It could have been Mardi Gras. It was wonderful. PNWR
appears to have donated more items plus $1000 in donations from
the club itself and an additional $700 from members. The Mini Club
donated more money - $3300 and fewer items.
After making our donations, a large number of participants drove
to the Coho Cafe at some other shopping area in Redmond. We followed Diane and Emmett Koontz, and if not for them we would have
had to buy a house over there, and once we had an address have our
furniture shipped - we never would have found our way. The food
was good; the company entertaining, and a wonderful time was had
by all.
The Mini Club has issued a challenge for next year. I would encourage everyone to participate. It was a great time for a very worthy
cause, and Larry and Sherrel Nelson are to be applauded for coordinating this event and making it so much fun.
Who won? Northwest Harvest of course.
January 2011
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