Operation Airboat II

[SwampMatt]

I don't know about that USPS account thing Basket - When I called the postoffice, they did not say a thing about it.... which means you probably gotta have one. :roll:

Geneva Dave expressed interest in paying for the postage with his credit card - (he'll get reimbursed from the raffle cash) Possibly a little tax writeoff perk in it for his trouble.

I'll set up an account too just in case, but I won't have the same little bonus since I don't do that on my taxes that way.

Yes, bring the internet! (and printer)

matt.

 

[bobby@Diamondback]

I would like to pay for the postage for these packages so please let me know what I need to do.

 

[blackpowderscout]

Bobby....will you be on site in the morning??

Adam

 

[blackpowderscout]

By the way, I have the addresses for the troops. So there are no surprises, I am only bringing 12 or so names. Each of these individual is registered to represent 15-40 soldiers. One of them even represents 100+!! I think it will be easier to send multiple packages to a few addresses and let them be distributed there. I had almost 30 names last time and it was a pain in the butt keeping it all straight in the end.

I am thinking we can have somebody working the computer end of it getting all the labels printed and whatnot, a few of us working at getting everything packed and weighed and a few loading and or stacking the completed packages.

We'll see how it should work once we get there though.

Thanks

Adam

 

[Daddy Dave]

Adam...What time do you want the helper / worker ants on hand? FishinGyspy and I will be there to help any way we can.

 

[bobby@Diamondback]

I'll probably get there sometime after noon to start getting ready for the Christmas party.

 

[a1mudpuppy]

10-4 on the laptop and printer. We should be their sometime around 8-9.

I have a UPS acount if we need to use it.

 

[Airboatcapt2]

Sorry I couldnt make it to help out this time.

 

[blackpowderscout]

BigD, I won't be able to get there until 9 or 9:30 so sometime around then would be ok I guess. I'll call you later this evening.

Mudpuppy, cool deal. That should really make things easier.

Adam

 

[blackpowderscout]

Spoke with a woman this afternoon who heard about our event on the radio. She has quite a bit of stuff she plans on dropping off in the morning before noon. She lives near Melbourne she said.

I'm all packed up, hooked up, and ready to roll in the morning. See ya'll then!!

Adam

 

[Skeeter]

Just got back from taking Darkwader and Boblee out for a ride .I will be there around 7:30.See yall in morning.

 

[a1mudpuppy]

All hook up to ready to ride

Adam hope you get this or the email I sent you I got the letter printed off, hope 30 is enough but the addresses didn't come through.

Bring them with you !

 

[Skeeter]

Just got back after one hell of a day.We shipped over 1000 lbs of care package items.Thanks to everyone there that helped in what ever was needed.And a Special Thanks to Bobby (Diamondback) for picking up the tab for postage.The raffle went off quite well do not have all numbers yet. Dawn will be purchasing calling cards to be sent over.We had a few small mishaps on our ride but I think it still turned out ok.

 

[cntry141iq]

The ride was way more than ok IT WAS MAAAVELOUS, LOL Runnin the pastures was great, climbin the hills, and doin 360's with a couple of newbies on the boat was priceless.

The people were wonderful, The temperature was excellent. we coulda used a Little more water that way bandit might not have thrown ms. Bandit out of the boat, pictures tomorrow, LOL yeah bandit your toast. I don't believe she was hurt other than gonna be sore for a day or two. Bandits boat now has matching sides because he bent the other side last time we were there and was only a few hundred feet from the same spot.

Afew broke boats but no serious injuries.

Jdotson you could see your favorite fence post just fine this time so you woulda been ok. LOL Plum crazy the wind was gentle so the little boat woulda been a blast for sure.

To all who didnt make it you missed it, probably the last great ride of the year.

Thanks to the SEMINOLE COUNTY CLUB, ya'll done good and as for the rumors about me please see skeeter, they are not true, I had nothin to do with what he was talkin to me about, and I couldn't find it on here anywhere, so I dont know .. except I didnt type it for sure.

Thanks everyone it was a blast for sure.

 

[SwampMatt]

It's good to hear your report Cntry about the ride. If no one got hurt, it was a good day.

Here is a report from the Land Lubbers of the day - (joining me on shore all day were Rick and Billalvord)

We sent a total of 33 boxes weighing between 20 and 40+ pounds. The average box (by my unofficial estimate) would treat 10 or more soldiers. So we took care of AT LEAST 350 soldiers..... and my numbers are conservative I think. We may have taken care of 400 or even 500.

And at the end of the day, there were an additional 5 to 6 boxes of stuff that came in after we made our post office run.

We took 1000 pounds of stuff to the post office. A1mudpuppy's wife Lori and I sat at the post office filling out the customs forms at a nice picnic table on the loading dock for about an hour. The online postage thing just did not work out. It seemed to be set up for a typical 3 line American address, and some of the APO addresses were up to 5 lines of stuff. THe forms had to be filled out by hand.

Bobby Fleckinger is the man of the hour - He single handedly took care of the postage for the entire load. WAY TO GO BOBBY!!!! THANKS!!! His personal donation for the day was over $600 worth of postage!!!

And we have some preliminary numbers in for the raffle - We took in about $1300.00 in cash. There are soon going to be a lot of boys and military gals getting in some IN PERSON VOICE TIME with their loved ones.

WAY TO GO SOUTHERN AIRBOAT!!!!!

Missing from my thanks list are the 2 or 3 ladies who helped with the boxing. DarkWader, Limey Chris and one other who I did not get a name were also helping with Packaging and weighing.

Basketcase and MsWizard, Skeeter, along with Cchardt & Dakota did a lot too.

THANK YOU TO BLACKPOWDERSCOUT for kicking this thing off and following it thru.

A1mudpuppy did a lot with the computer - We tried to do it online!!! But the computer proved it's worth when we printed out address labels.

Thanks Diamondback & Bobby, Thanks Loughman, Thanks Southern Airboat, Thanks SCAC, and thanks for EVERYONE who took part!!!!

I think we really did something that will get noticed and appreciated by those who will recieve those boxes.

matt.

 

[Whitebear]

This is AWESOME !

I just had a feeling it was going to be a ride to be talked about for generations !

Ok it's not over yet. Now where is the press release with the numbers. Was ANY press there for the event?

This is the kinda thing that makes legends out of good people and good clubs !

Thouhg I wasn't there I am proud to be a part of Southern Airboat !

Scotty

 

[Dakota]

What a great time we had yesterday. We were able to send alot of stuff out to the troops. There will be alot of happy troops. Thanks to all that helped out and a special thanks to Bobby. You made us feel welcome at the end of the night at the Christmas party.
Thanks for the ride all day country. I had a great time. I was not really in the mood to ride yesterday but you was able to put me in the mood. Thanks!!! It was good to meet some new people and put some faces with names. Darkwader, you know me now. :lol:
Mudpuppy and wife you were alot of help, Skeeter you did a good job putting everything together. Thanks Rick for raising more money by auctioning off those rudders and Basket you got your rudders. Adam, it was great to see another side of you. I have never had so much fun in my life!!! I would not trade this family for anything in the world!!! Cannot wait to do it again.

 

[SwampMatt]

Half Ton Of "Home" Sent to Troops

Saturday December 16 2006 - Members of SouthernAirboat.com organized an event
to send relief and some comforts of home to our troops overseas.

On Saturday airboat and outdoor sporting enthusiasts gathered at Loughman Lake Lodge
in Mims, Florida to donate care packages for military personnel stationed overseas.

People from all over the state brought items listed at http://www.anysoldier.com such as toothpaste,
candy, instant soup, jerky, shampoo, baby wipes, feminine products, laundry soap, and
magazines from home. All the items were laid out and sorted into boxes.

When it was all done, the boxes were hauled off to the Mims post office for processing. The total
weight of nearly 40 boxes was over 1000 pounds.

Included in each box were cards and letters from children belonging to schools and
scouting troops across the state.

IN ADDITION to the physical merchandise collected and shipped overseas, an open invitation
was sent to several nearby military bases. A few soldiers accepted the invitation and
joined the airboaters on a ride through the marshes of the St. Johns River. About 30 airboats
participated, a good time was had by all.

In addition to the care packages sent, a raffle and auction was held after the ride which
raised over $1300. Which was used to purchase calling cards for the soldiers
stationed overseas.

Bobby Fleckinger of Diamondback Airboats in Cocoa donated over $600 for the postage.

Did I leave anyone out? I’m not a professional writer, and don’t know the little secret tricks for writing for a news release. I know there is some specific language to use (or avoid). I don’t know if I followed those rules or not, but this is my suggestion for a post-event press release.

To answer your question Scotty, No, there was not any new outlets present at our event. However, some of the donations of stuff came from some people who lived nearby and saw it on the TV listing of charity events calendar.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE ADDED TO THIS RELEASE IS A ROUGH GUESS “TEASER� FOR THE DATE OF WHEN WE’RE GONNA DO IT AGAIN. (june?)

Matt.

 

[bandit9077]

matt, just to add to the pot , when we were checking out of the Super 8 i was talking to the manager about the day and she responded by donating about 50 lbs of Kool Aid which we gave skeeter before our ride on sunday. really nice of them. Special thanks to adam, for his efforts and everyone else

 

[Limey Chris]

OOOOOOOOOOO Your in trouble. Limey Chris stood around lookin` purty ,while his wife worked her cute hind end off packin`

However,.... I did leave cute little foot prints on Bandit`s yuppie boat, I only laughed a little when Ms Bandit did a swan dive off their boat, I found a way to get my boat airbourne, I found that black mud is sticky but if you throw your passengers off and put foot you can burn 10 gallons of gas in 30 feet. If you follow Adam you`ll either never run in water, get stuck, get lost or get pelted with jetesonned beverage containers (he went back to get them, calm down) Chasing seagulls and pelican leaves interesting evidence on your boat. Ms Basket case will say bad words if ya honk your horn at her in gas stations. Southern Airboat t shirts are $200 each and don`t come in the huskier gentlemans size. Bandit is no good at watching for prop wash...ooops my bad :wink:

All jokin` aside I havn`t had so much fun with some of the most genuine people in an age of sundays. Y`all are cool with a capital ool. I wanna do it again