Porsche Parade Report

by Steve Kidd, GCR Historian, Past President & Parade attendee

After 2 years in the making, members were ready to have a Parade

As many of you know, the Porsche Parade is the pinnacle of all PCA events. It’s held once a year at a different location and generally rotates from the East Coast to the West Coast to the Midwest. The Parade is one week long and features just about every type of activity you could wish for. This year the Parade was in French Lick, Indiana,. The site of the parade in 2015. Due to Covid concerns, the 2020 Porsche Parade was canceled, so PCA had a lot of catching up to do. By most accounts, the fun factor met expectations, and a great time was had.

Parade is fueled by volunteers

Like most PCA activities, volunteers play a huge role in getting things done at Parade. I dare say that without volunteers and the volunteer spirit, costs would be higher and a lot of new friendships would not form. At parade, volunteers are needed for every activity and by signing up for at least two volunteer shifts, each volunteer can attend the volunteer luncheon, which features not only great food, but also an opportunity to win great prizes. Dottie and I served as “runners” during the luncheon, i.e., part of the team that ran the awards to the table of the recipients. Prizes range from cool swag (hats, shirts, tote bags, car care kits etc.) to sets of tires. Some shifts can be a few hours, but other shifts can wind up being all day.

Beside runners, Dottie and I also served as banquet ticket takers, AutoX set-up team, AutoX protest committee, concours judge and concours timer/runner.

A surprise award

Since the Porsche Club of America was formed in 1955, regions have prioritized community service and charitable contributions. In 2002, PCA decided to recognize the unique and diverse programs implemented by regions throughout PCA in support of public service. The PCA Public Service Awards recognize the regions that have conducted the most outstanding charity or community service event or events during the year. The winning regions demonstrate the highest standards in meeting the objectives and the ideals of

Steve & Dottie Kidd, Peggy & Paul Raben, and Lynn & Steve Bamdas accepting the PCA service award for GCR.

the PCA in providing service and support to charities and the community. Due to the importance of public service to the club, and the number of PCA regions involved in public service, PCA decided to present multiple awards. Awards are presented for first, second, and third place and honorable mentions.

Prior to this year, GCR had never won a Parade Public Service award; however, that changed at this year’s Parade. This July, GCR was awarded third place for our outstanding service to the community, including but not limited to charitable donations to children’s hospitals, a Thanksgiving turkey drive in underserved communities and distribution of 500 Christmas food baskets, with food gift cards supplied by GCR. The primary recipients were families who experienced extreme hardships due to Covid-19. Thanks again to all the GCR members for their participation and financial contributions, and to Peter for doing much of the organizational work and writing the submission that resulted in the recognition.

Competitive events

For some folks, Parade is all about competition. The major competitive events are concours, rally, autocross, and tech quiz. Lots of other competition occurs in activities such as a golf tournament, an art show and a 5K run/walk, to name a few of them. Other forms of competition occur in areas such as website and newsletter awards, public service, family and enthusiast recognition as well as coveted awards such as the PCA Region of the Year. I’m not going to spoil the surprises and so I ask all our readers to go to this year’s Porsche Parade website and see how GCR members and other PCA friends performed: https://www. porscheparade.org/.

Tours and Banquets

For those wanting activities without competition, there were many tours available just about every day. Some of these tours were scenic drives, some visited local attractions, and others were just plain FUN. Again, for the full listing of tours, please see the Parade website for photos and other information about these tours. For those who like to eat and drink, there were various food and beverage tasting activities as well as more formal banquets on four nights. At the banquets, awards and presentations were made as well as speeches from top officials at Porsche, PCNA, and PCA.

The 65th parade is now history. but set your sights on the 66th Parade in the Poconos

Here’s hoping that Gold Coast members will take advantage of this unique opportunity and travel to other parts of the country for future parades. For us, there is nothing like the camaraderie, competition, volunteering, and Porsche style! fun. Hopefully Dottie and I will see some of you in Pennsylvania next year.

Until next Parade....Steve