Seems I owe Mike Stinson an apology about last year’s Beginner Stunt event at the NATs.
In a tradition begun by his former fellow club member, Allen Brickhouse, Mike and his crew spend the year gathering donations from manufacturers and individual “friends of stunt” to use as prizes for the Beginner Class event at the NATs. Obviously the intent is to support and encourage these entry level stunt flyers get more and better equipment to help their progress. Indeed, the collection of stuff often allows the Beginner entrants to get several valuable merchandise prizes. Last year was no different, the number of prizes collected was phenomenal. Seeing the stack of stuff, I asked Mike if the Intermediate flyers could also participate in the prize giveaway. Again, the idea of helping our Intermediate flyers also seemed like a good idea. Mike is an agreeable sort and he agreed to my suggestion.
Here’s where my apology comes in. Unfortunately, Mike has suffered a back lash from previous donors The donations came from people (including some Intermediate class flyers) thinking they were giving to the Beginner event ALONE. This year Mike has suffered a sharp decline in donations because the Intermediate Class flyers participated in last year’s prize give away. That was a totally unexpected and unintended consequence of my suggestion, and we will not be repeating THAT mistake again.
Hopefully there is still time to recover and help Mike and the Beginner event. If you chose not to donate this year because of what we did last year, please be assured that it will not happen again. I explained above how it happened last year, and while I was on the road paved with good intentions - well you see where it has led us! I hope you have a change of heart and see fit to again make a donation to the Beginner Class event.
Please contact Mike at dc8driver AT hotmail DOT com to participate.