The wheels are turning again

After several hits to our Blue Carpet Corridor organization, including one sad and tragic one, we have re-organized and are once again making progress. And after some slow-downs, brainstorming, and meetings, the Edwardsville Route 66 Conference has definitely picked up steam. 

As for the Blue Carpet Corridor Coalition, first we lost our vice-president (but thankfully just to an extremely busy schedule and other projects). Then on September 22, Stan Barker, our president, leader, and friend, passed away. We vowed that all that Stan worked for would not be lost and we redoubled our efforts to re-organize and move forward with BCC plans. To that end, after some gentle arm-twisting, I traded in my secretary hat for the president's hat. Dave Tucker of Taylor's Mexican Chili in Carlinville (check out their story at http://www.taylorschili.com) more than stepped up to the plate and now serves as our very active vice-president. Suzanne Gray of Virden as secretary and Glenn Sheets of Staunton as treasurer round out our executive board. Dave also dusted off his programming skills to become our webmaster, and we'll have our web site ready for your viewing pleasure very soon. (Just as soon as the rest of our 18 communities get their information and community links to us, hint, hint.) In the meantime, please join us and "like" us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BlueCarpetCorridor.

Remember to mark your calendars for Saturday-Sunday, June 13-14, 2015, for the inaugural Blue Carpet Corridor event! As a bonus, Chatham and Edwardsville also each have festivities on Friday evening, June 12, so you can start your BCC weekend early! Each community will have something going on, whether a car show, food booths, museum and historic site open hours, festival, etc.

And as for the Edwardsville Route 66 Conference scheduled for October 2015, the entities partnering in producing this event are close to making an announcement. I have most of the conference plan written, contributed to by numerous individuals far and wide who will get their well-deserved acclaim before long. Again, we're close to having a web site but in the meantime please visit our new Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Route66Edwardsville.

A few fun tidbits that I can share with you about the conference are:  on Thursday afternoon, we will have historic tours and on Thursday evening, a pub crawl to a short list of legendary stops on Route 66. Friday and Saturday will offer a variety of conference sessions on pertinent topics. On Friday evening, the historic Wildey Theatre will host our contingent for a meal and live entertainment that you will not want to miss! And on Saturday evening, Edwardsville's 90-year tradition of a huge Halloween parade will fill Route 66 and Main Street, followed by a private party for conference attendees to relax and celebrate! Also, there is a strong possibility of adding another day to the festivities - Wednesday, October 28 - for an adventure.



More news soon. "Sometimes the wheel turns slowly. but it turns." - Lorne Michaels.

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