BEARFEST

                             BEARFEST 2007 Reflection by Cliff Pope:

Well my friends, all I can say is WOW!


After cleaning up Sunday morning around 11am, Vince, Tony & and I took a breather and just felt good about Saturday. For us, Bearfest ended up being everything we ever hoped for. Started out as an idea and ended up becoming reality.

When I got on the mic Saturday it really was hard not to choke up when I saw all the people who showed up to West Harrison on Saturday. Just looking at your faces and feeling the love that was out there. Really hard to put into words.

I wanted to thank each and everyone one of you who showed up Saturday. Without you there would be no Bearfest. Your generosity was amazing. Simply amazing.

Thanks to Vince and Gretchen Lomboy for opening their household up to 225 people. Not to mention all the sweat, time and effort they put into everything the week prior to Bearfest-including one hell of a fireworks show. Vince is still recovering this morning!

Thanks to Tony Adkins for keeping all our finances in order.

Thanks to BJ Taylor for keeping this website up and running. BJ you did a great job with our web page!

Thanks To Tami, Stacey and Connie for manning the T-shirt booth all day. Thanks for not killing me when I forgot to send over the second shift!!! J

Thanks to Gina, Nicole, & Becky for taking care of registration.

Thanks to Strotman for constructing the very popular “Legends Field” homerun wall for us!

Thanks to Rick and Linda Debar for donating their beer truck, their beer, $1,000 check, and for bartending all day Saturday! Please be sure to patronize and support the Barrelhouse Brewery whenever you get the chance! You can check them out online at http://barrelhouse.malz.com/

Thanks to George Fisher for making sure we had all the beer that we needed-AND THEN SOME!!!!

Thanks to Mark Steinher for getting our custom made corn hole sets created and donated for the event.

Thanks to Steve Long, John Fox, and Coach Bear for helping set up the tents, tables and chairs on Friday in 90 degree heat!

Thanks to Chris Howard for helping man the grill (aka-the Towering inferno!)

Thanks to Jane Sheehan and Lou Rosati for doing an awesome job running the food tent.

Thanks to everyone who remembered to bring a side dish-I hope everyone got enough to eat!

Thanks to The Kevin Fox Band (http://thekevinfoxband.com/) and the Walker Project (http://www.walkerprojectmusic.com/)  for jamming out West Harrison for us! You guys sounded awesome!

Thanks to Chris Walker for delivering and setting up our sound system.

Thanks to Bill Spangler for graciously allowing us to park all those cars in his front yard! Thanks to Will and Dillon Spangler for working their butts off from set-up day to clean up day. Hard to find young kids with that kind of work ethic these days!

Thanks to Sparky Lyle and John Murray for parking cars all day!

Thanks to Scott Marshall for shooting the video all day to put our official Bearfest 2007 DVD together (filming all day in some serious heat!) we will be taking orders later this summer.

And because I am old and forget something different everyday, thanks once again to every other person that I may have forgotten to thank personally. I didn’t get a chance to talk to all of you but your presence just made it a very special event. Not bad for a “private party”, huh? As Vince said back in November, “one thing we’ll always be able to do-is throw a party!” we wanted to have a celebration of Guy’s life and I think that is exactly what we did!

You will be happy to know that plans for 2008 are already rolling, I already have Andy Tesnar working on the 2008 t-shirt design. So, hopefully we’ll see you then.

One small request-I was kind of busy Saturday and did not get a chance to take any pictures of our event, if anyone has pics from Saturday could you please, possibly email them to me at cp5570@yahoo.com