Vintage Race Boat Shop

  We maintain vintage wooden boats.

 

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR

Photo by Donnie McLean - Winter Doldrums Dinner & Auction - 3/22/2002

It was with a huge debt of gratitude that our New Hampshire Boat Museum honored Bill John as VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR at our Winter Doldrums Dinner on March 22.  The obvious reason for this recognition, of course, would be for maintaining and creating a Website that has such a personality.  I can’t imagine what sort of instruction we would have to give to a “site server” that would breath such life into each and every page.  Bill has had to take directions and input from a wide cast of characters and has managed to do this in his genuinely easygoing manner.  If the website seems to be a little heavy with race boat chatter, that is only because we are not getting other material to him. (HINT HINT)   Since Bill began maintaining the site, visits have gone from 5000 to over 27,000.  He has developed a site for the museum that has attracted visitors from all over the world.

 

The Website had not been Bill’s only contribution.  The NH Vintage Race Boat Regatta has truly been his passion.  Our first year, Bill, together with Barbara and Jeff Magnuson, accounted for one third of the entries, and provided us with the support to give it another go.  During the next year Bill gathered up entries from far and wide, bringing the excitement of Jersey Skiffs and Hydroplanes to Lake Winnipesaukee.  We gained national recognition as the best run vintage regatta race on the circuit.  Bill, and at this point we have to mention his faithful riding mechanic, Donnie McLean, will run at six vintage events this summer drumming up participants for our 2003 Regatta.  For such a young museum, with our continued status of being a volunteer organization, The NH Vintage Race Boat Regatta has been an enormous feather in our cap.

 

Rides, did I hear someone mention wooden boat rides?  Bill has orchestrated and participated in boat rides for any reason he can think of to benefit the museum.  We wouldn’t want to spread the word too far, but if people only knew that all they have to do is be at the docks any day of the week around five when Bill finishes his day job, he will take them for a ride.  And what a ride it is, Bill and his “OBSESSION” are a well known fixture on the lake at sunset.

 

Bill has undertaken a one man Membership Drive and as a result we now give him his own monthly printout of members. Heaven forbid if he knows you and you are not on the list.  He has rounded up quiet a number of new “friends” for us.  And that is what they truly have become.  At this past summers Regatta, after having shared e-mails with them for so long, it was a pleasure to meet so many of Bill’s Friends.

 

So, as you can see there was really never any discussion as to who would be VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR. When Bill speaks of the Museum, he always says “Our Museum” and that is what makes him so special, he knows that that is our goal and works very hard at being our “Goodwill Ambassador” wherever he goes.

 

Bill, on behalf of The Board Of Trustees and all the membership, “Our helmets off to you, and Godspeed on the vintage circuit this summer.”

 

Linda DaBica - Museum Chairperson

3/22/2002