Lotovention - 20th Anniversary

The 20th lotovention is now history, but the terrific memories will go on forever. John Flara and Bob Heskett did a fantastic job of putting everything together. The convention room was super sized this year and was really needed. Not only did 20 members show up, but so did their family members. The room had two rows of grab tables with about 5 long tables in each row. There were so many tickets that John had to have the hotel add a third row. The amount of tickets was almost overwhelming. There was also no less then 6 give away boxes/bags for every member. The perimeter of the room was lined with tables for each member to spread out their own give away lottery tickets. On top of all this there were 3 tables cover with many, many raffle prizes.

Bob was able to acquire 3 or 4 members' collection for this convention. Bob had so much he had to rent a van to bring it all to the convention. Also, Jim Sachetti's family arrived on Friday morning to donate his collection to this year's lotovention. There were so many tickets that everyone who attended walked away with a huge amount of tickets to add to their collections. I know I came with a full SUV and promised myself to take it easy this year and not pick up everything I saw. Well, that promise was not kept. I went home with almost as much as I brought. From the looks of what others were packing up so did many others who attended.

Again, a major thank you goes to Bob and John for a job well done. I want to also thank Mary Martin for doing a superb job on this year's program. Twila Flara also gets a big thank you for acting as a fantastic tour guide for some of the ladies this year. I also want to thank each and every one of you who honored my request to support this year's lotovention with your very generous donations. You know who you are and for that support, I thank you.

Happy collecting,

Steve Gilbert #535