La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux Grand Voiture du Texas OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GRAND du TEXAS Winner of the Arthur McDowell Award 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 for the Best Grand Voiture Publication in the Nation without Advertising
April 2015
From the Grand Chef… The 2015 Spring Cheminot is behind us and we held our annual Merci Boxcar pilgrimage at Camp Mabry so all who attended got to see the boxcar as it has been sitting for the thousands of visitors to the museum; far than it has had over the many years at its previous location so we should be proud to have accomplished the move and thankful to the Texas Military Forces Museum for housing our Merci Boxcar inside the Great Hall. I received this note from Jeff Hunt about the Merci Boxcar exhibit just before our annual event: Please convey our appreciation to everyone in attendance for the support your organization has given the museum, how delighted we are to have the boxcar in the exhibit and how popular it has proven to be with our visitors (39,006 in 2014). Jeffrey Wm Hunt, Director Texas Military Forces Museum That is quite an impressive number of visitors and Camp Mabry just held their annual open house in conjunction with the American Heroes Air Show on April 18th and April 19th. Voiture 175 set up a table there and met many who stopped into the museum for the event. The Merci Boxcar is a favorite and the new lighting was finished before the open house so the box car looks great!
We are very close to 100% for this year. We in fact lost the Membership Award at the Central States Promenade to Colorado by .32% and two more renewals in Texas would have put us in First Place. If I had realized we were so close I would have gotten the word out so we could have not missed out on that award. I hope that our accomplishment for this year will be 100% within Grand and I thank all those who worked so hard and went over 100% on their membership. Much of their success is due to their programs. Each locale should work to have at least two active programs. Americanism is easy as most any event we are involved in falls under the Americanism Program. The Flags for 1st Graders Program is a key part of Americanism and gives the Voiture Locale good visibility within the community. Child Welfare, Youth Sports, and of course Nurses Training are all good programs that can be worked and remember to report what you have done. Other programs that seem difficult may not be as hard as you think. There is a good article on the VAVS program within the newsletter that I hope everyone reads and realizes how important the VAVS program is and how much impact our programs have on others. David Knutson Grand Chef de Gare
VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG
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