Trout Unlimited "officially" became incorporated on September 22,
1959. Trout Unlimited was "born" on July 18, 1959 at the Barbless
Hook property east of Grayling on the banks of the Au Sable River when
George Griffith assembled fifteen like-minded sportsmen to form our
beloved organization.
As you are all aware, 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the founding of
Trout Unlimited. August 17th through the 22nd marks the week long
celebration in Traverse City for the National Trout Unlimited
celebration hosted by the Michigan Council. In addition, the Michigan
Council of Trout Unlimited is having a birthday party for Trout
Unlimited on Saturday, July 18th, as our Michigan celebration of TU's
founding.
The event will be held at the DNR Rayburn property, about two miles
east of downtown Grayling, Saturday, July 18th from 9:00AM to 8:00PM.
There will be food, contests, raffles, displays (chapters & partners),
games, entertainment, auctions, kids activities, fly fishing & fly
tying demonstrations, etc........ We're working on the details to
make this a really fun, interactive, informative, and special event.
At this stage of planning we expect admission to be free with costs to
be limited to purchased items, souvenirs, t-shirts, hats, memorabilia,
etc....
We hope that your Chapter will participate in the event by taking the
lead in a Celebration Activity (music, demonstration, historical item)
or other related activities (running a grill, selling pop). We will
also need volunteers the day of the event to ensure it runs smoothly
and for post party clean up.
This is where you come in. We need one event representative from each
chapter to be the information conduit back to the organizing
html_removed committee. That representative can correspond with me either by email
(preferred) or phone with questions, suggestions, offers of help,
resources, whatever. My contact information is at the end of this
email. While I will periodically update all the chapter event
representatives we will also have updates on the MCTU.org website.
We also need you to talk this event up with your chapter membership in
your upcoming meetings, newsletters, and banquets. An added bonus for
your chapters is that any proceeds from this event will be shared with
the chapters. When we get closer to July 18th we will need from each
of you some idea of how many of your chapter members plan on
attending. We need this for obvious planning purposes, facilities,
food, parking, etc....
We're very excited that this Birthday Celebration is taking place
especially for the Michigan Trout Unlimited members. FYI, before I
forget, this celebration is not limited to TU members. We're opening
it up to the entire public community. We want the public to also
celebrate everything TU has become and added to their community.
In the next couple of weeks please let me know who your chapter
representative is so I can send out updates as the birthday
celebration plans develop.
Thanks,
Tom Quail
The Michigan Celebration of Trout Unlimited's 50th Birthday
Vanguard Chapter - Vice President
MCTU Chapter Representative
