Progress Report-hunt Co Fair Tat

[Art Hendrix]

Just wanted to update everyone on the Hunt County Woodturners 9-day Turnathon at the Hunt Co. Fair in Greenville, Texas.

We turned 71 pens the first day (Friday) in 6 hours with 2 lathes running. Sat. we started at noon and the thunderstorm hit about 4:30. We turned 54 pens before we had to put everything away.

It looks like we will exceed our goal of 400 pens. We are getting many, many positive and grateful statements about the FP program and what we are doing. Several people told us about their sons who are in Iraq right now, and they are the ones who seem the most thankful. Several folks already knew about the program from the articles in the local paper.

Art Hendrix

[Ken Salisbury]

It looks like we will exceed our goal of 400 pens.

Art Hendrix
Keep up the good work. To make sure you don't have any excuses for not exceeding the goal I shipped you 300 more kits today via USPS Priority Mail. :D :D

[Art Hendrix]

Thanks, Ken. We are cutting more blanks and glueing in tubes as we speak. I think we have about 190 completed pens after 3 nights at the fair. It is awesome. The program speaks for itself, really, and everyone who stops by our booth comments on what a neat program it is.

We'll try to get a pic of the booth to post. Yesterday we had to make a new banner after the rainstorm of Saturday afternoon. This one is better. The big poster is rather faded but the folks still read it and love it.

The local newspaper is going to do a feature on our booth this week.

Art

[Art Hendrix]

As of Monday night, we have 266 pens turned at our TAT. We are letting them dry 2 days before putting them in the tubes. The humidity is high here with all the thunderstorms coming in every evening. So far we have only been rained out 1 night, but the forcast calls for rain every afternoon but 1 through Sat.

We have 200 ready to ship--that was the total for the 1st 3 days! We're quite happy with the totals and with the publicity we're putting out for the program.

Art

[Daniel Yourdon]

Keep on Kickin, You are showing that even the storms are not going to divert you. Imagine had you not gotten the break from the storm. Any chance you would run out of Kits?

[Art Hendrix]

No, Daniel, we shouldn't run out of kits. Uncle Ken is taking care of us. Thank you for asking.

We were rained out again today, both shifts. We are going to bring in 2 more lathes for Fri. & Sat. to make up for the 3 lost shifts. And some are going to turn 3 hours at their homes. Texans don't give up easily, you know!

Art

[Art Hendrix]

We mailed the first 200 pens today by USPS Priority Mail; they said they would arrive Saturday.

Ken, we received the kits yesterday. Thanks!

We have around 135 more pens turned for a TAT total so far of 335. A couple of guys are turning at home to make up their shifts that were rained out. And we will set up 2 more lathes at the fair for Friday and Saturday. We are pleased with the count so far, and hope to have a big finish Saturday night! This is a great program for a great cause!

Art

[Art Hendrix]

Good news today! We made 108 pens yesterday at our TAT! This brings our total number of pens to 432! One turner stayed both shifts yesterday (6 hours) and made 47 pens by himself. And he makes a beautiful pen.

The crowd was tremendous around our booth, possibly because the rain has let up. One lady had tears in her eyes when she heard our speil and told us we were doing a wonderful thing with our pens. She had family members in Iraq.

Now we are scrambling for enough pen kits and supplies to finish up the week. We will run 10 hours Saturday with 4 lathes, so who knows what our final count will be?

Art

[Keith Outten]

Art,

Certainly I can't say hoe many pens you will have at the end of your TAT but I'm sure you have made a big impact on the crowds of people who have visited your booth.

Thanks to you and all of your friends for joining us and for such a great effort!

[Art Hendrix]

Today the weather cooperated and we had a great day at the fair with our TAT. Total pens turned today was 154. That brings our TAT total to 586 pens!!!!!! And we still have 10 hours to go tomorrow.

Art

[Daniel Yourdon]

Do I See 800 pens in your future???
Awesome job to everyone.

[Waymon Campbell]

Art - Thanks for the update and all the efforts you and the others have expended to make this TAT a great success. The troops and their loved ones will be proud of you!

[Art Hendrix]

Thanks Waymon, Keith, and Daniel for your kind words of encouragement.

It's over! We're all tired, but we are proud to have turned 725-plus pens and to have met many nice folks who now know about the FPP. That is twice the number we originally thought we might make. Today's crop of pens is really nice because we knew we would run out of pen kits so we took our time and made some really pretty pens. We managed to borrow about 50 kits to make the day.

We had a little competition going to see who could turn the most pens in one day. David Rose of Wichita Falls, eat your heart out! Pleas McKee turned 47 a couple days ago, and today our president, Dan Henry, turned 49. So Dan is the Champ!

You are probably all tired of hearing from me, so there will only be one more post. I will give you our final count, and I will tell you when we have the pictures posted on our web site in a few days (maybe that's 2 more posts.)

Art Hendrix for the Hunt County Woodturners

[Jerry Stringer]

Congratulations, Art, on a fantastic finish!

All of the turners should be proud to be a part of your event. Sprry I couldn't make it . . . too many irons in the fire.

How did that wood work out??

Jerry

[Daniel Yourdon]

Art,
I for one would never tire of hearing your reports. I appreciate that you took the time out from a very long week to keep us updated. there is alot of Character in your group that they pressued through all that tried to get in your way. and an amazing count. your one group completed nearly 5% of this years goal alone. and nearly 1% of the total we expect to ever produce. this is an unbalievable effort and greatly appreciated.
Rest up then Gloat Gloat Gloat. you all deserve to be proud.

[Dan Henry]

The Hunt Co Fair is over and the Hunt County Woodturners made 732 pens in 9 days Wow. We had 3 1/2 shifts rained out, we made up by adding 2 more lathes on Friday and Saturday, we had 14 turners over the 9 days. The Freedom Pen Program was recieved very well and we got several pen sponsers, we ran out of pen kits and had to borrow from Art Hendrix to finsh the evening on Saturday. We realy enjoyed doing the TAT and it has become a great club effort. Thanks to the Freedon pen Program for providing so many kits, I would like to think we have made a new group of friends throught out the Freedon Pen Program. The pens will be in the mail as soon as we get them in bags.

Dan Henry
President Hunt County Woodturners

[Julie Wright]

Congratulations - and Thanks for All Your Hardwork
I know the troops will really appreciate their pens. :)

[Aaron Koehl]

All I can say is... WOW!!

[Art Hendrix]

I just wanted to tell you all that, in case you would like to see pics of our TAT, they are now on our web site at:
http://www.huntcountywoodturners.org/photos.htm. Some aren't too good because of the cloudy days, but at least you can get an idea of what our humble booth looked like, and see a few of our turners.

We mailed our 732 pens Monday, along with another 94 pens turned by various members of our club over the past month. We are resting up now for the Mesquite Rockler TAT to be held in less than 2 weeks. We will blow the socks off the other Rockler store in Arlington!

Jerry, the wood turned beautifully and we thank you for it.

Julie and others, thanks for the kind words. I think I will print this thread and read all the compliments at our next club meeting. Everyone will love it.

Besides all the pens we made for the troops, we may have recruited 4 or 5 new turners for our club. And we made a lot of new friends.

Art Hendrix
Commerce, Texas

[Arvin Brown]

732 - is that the current record??

[Jerry Stringer]

732 - is that the current record??

hi Arvin,

I believe it is, but just remember to keep apples to apples . . . that was over several days! That shouldn't be compared to a single day's TAT.

Thanks!

Jerry