I would like to take a moment and thank our good friend Dave Hannum for allowing Patty and myself to be part of planning this recent HL Reunion. It truly was a pleasure to be involved from the very beginning to the final conclusion. This reunion from a logistical perspective was definitely the most difficult to date and Dave pulled it off in a very professional manner. Dave throughout this whole process handled things like he has been doing this type of event for years and I know if he had not been willing to take a very big risk, this Reunion would not have happened.

I also want to thank Patty for all the hard work she has contributed to this event, WAY WAY WAY more than I did. Because of her efforts, I(we) received a piece very near to my heart and that would not have happened without all that she had put into this event.

Also thanks to the many helpers that allowed my back to survive the week; Rick and Christiane; Jeff and Mary; Roy and Carolyn; Herm and Mary; Sue and Paul; Rip and Sharon; Rich and Cam; Roger and Donna; Derith and Ruthie; Harry; Judy; Gary and Kay; Lee; Brent; Dan and Carol; Rick and Sis and all the Mission Pt. Staff (for putting up with us.)I also apologize for missing anyone.

Finally, if there could be one do-over for the entire 4 days it would be this:
That Susan and Heather Hannum would have been brought up on stage during the auction and been given the same appreciation that we were. They have worked incredibly hard throughout the year and never stopped hustling during the event. The two of them made the Reunion fun for us, even with all the craziness going on. Again thank you Susan and Heather.

Also, thanks to Harbour Lights for creating a product line and family atmosphere that has allowed all this to continue. The pieces donated this year were incredible. Harry, thanks for all your ideas and for bringing Rick and Christiane, who, Patty and I hope have become our new best UK buddies and we hope to see again.

In closing, our good friend Dave accomplished, what I think was the best Reunion I have attended. A Reunion planned by collectors for collectors. He is very good at these types of events and if he wants us, Patty and I will be there whenever needed. So bring on the cruise, buddy!!!

My wife and I had the greatest time! Weather was perfect every day including two days before and two days after lighthousing. We got a taste of how rough the Straits could be on our trip back Friday morning in 6 foot waves.
Awesome time. We echo Mike plaudits!

Bob & MaryAnn

Now that I'm a little more coherent, I would like to add a few more thanks to some special people. Of course, without Dave (Bubba to me) this would never have been a possibility. He spent countless of hours since May of 2004 working on this special event. I know that we talked almost daily during this time period and there were two times that we traveled up to Mission Point for work weekends. I'm not sure of the total number of trips North for Dave...I believe at least five. Dave and Susan and "Princess" Heather worked extremely hard to make this reunion a possibility. Thank you to the three of you for a spectacular time and all the hard work you did. You are great friends.

There are a couple of people "behind" the scenes I(we) would like to thank. Without Digger (Steve to some), we would not have had such beautiful logos. I say logos because he produced two beautiful pen and inks for us to use. One was used for the Reunion logo and the other was used for the back of the t-shirts and tins. Between Dave and I, we can't draw a stick figure! So we definitely needed artistic talent.

We would also like to thank Paul Brady, who was a great help before the reunion as well. Paul helped with the Mark Sherman prints, worked on digitizing (I hope that is the word) the logo so it could be stiched on the clothing and imprinted on the other items. If you look very closely at your postcards you received, you will see that the pictures were provided by Dave, Paul and Mike. The aerial ones were taken by Dave and the east strait pictures were taken on a cruise we took on a very small fishing boat on a cold, choppy October day. Plus how would the non-reunion attendees know what a wonderful time we had, if Paul wasn't there??? He provides excellent commentaries along with great pictures so the people who stayed home could "kinda" felt like they were there. Thank you Paul for your beautiful pictures (even though I was always telling him to go away as I hate my picture taken).

My final thank you is to Mike. Mike has been great support prior to this event and worked endlessly throughout it. Thanks for everything Honey!!


Patty

This year the reunion on Mackinaw Island was an event that we will always remember and cherish. At first we were not sure what to expect or how it would compare with past reunions. The weather was fantastic every day on this island paradise. The morning and afternoon cruises were well organized and the lighthouse viewing was magnificent. Our favorite time was just sitting on the front lawn eating our box lunch and enjoying the view. With all the activities, gifts, meals, prizes, and the chance to meet friends and fellow collectors we feel this reunion was well worth the money we spent. We would like to thank Dave Hannum and his family for all their hard work and dedication to making this reunion a success, to the Youngers for their presence and contributions, to the Mission Point staff for their hospitality and friendliness. and last (but not least), Mike and Patty Kaiser for their valued friendship and for helping to make this reunion the BEST reunion ever.

Thanks for the kind words, Patty.. It was a lot of fun working with Digger's great artwork for the different Reunion items.. It also was quite a treat to be the first to see Mark Sherman's original watercolor, when he shipped it directly to me to photograph in order for me to make all of the prints for the the attendees.. My Epson Photo 2200 printer ran about 6 hours a day (12 hours a day on weekends) for two weeks in order to print them at a very high resolution.. It is really neat knowing that everybody that attended the Reunion has a print from my printer and since I shot the original artwork with my new Nikon D2X digital camera, downloaded to my laptop digitally and readied the image in Photoshop digitally, every print is an identical original print of Mark Sherman's watercolor.. Nothing but the best for Harbour Lights Collectors!!

It also was a pleasure to work with Dave as he added more and more exciting collector-oriented items to the reunion, such as the original postcards produced from photos shot by himself, Mike and me. Dave worked tirelessly to make this reunion the best possible ever.

Lastly, but not least, the addition of Harry Hine's involvement in this reunion brought it to a new level for all the HL collectors. From his seminar on how the lighthouses are produced to bringing Rick and Christiane across the pond to produce a lighthouse on the spot during the Reunion...

It was very, very special for me to make a little mark in what became sand at the base of the Cheboygan Crib Lighthouse as all of the attendees where asked to contirbute to the sculpting of the lighthouse..

It Just Doesn't Get Any Better Than That!!

Wow!

The only word for the work of Dave Hannum and his team of family and collector friends who made things run so smoothly. There were surprises each day - with items left on the pillows in your room as well as the Thumbnails passed out.

Dave has given his life in the past year to making this happen for us and for Harbour Lights. His hard work was recognized again and again by Kim and Bill from the podium and he received a standing ovation more than once from the 425+ collectors in attendance.

In recognition of his tireless work, he received a gold Waugoshance full size piece during the closing breakfast from Kim. A one-of-a-kind Harbour Lights for a one-of-a-kind guy.

Great Work, Dave, Susan, Heather and team!

I think everyone pretty much summed up my thoughts. I just go a bit further and say a special thanks to all those involved in making the Reunion extra special for my Daughters. The special little personalized gift really made it that much more worth while.

Thanks again to everyone.

Where and when's the next one?

Mike

Jeff and I would also like to echo THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES to Dave, Susan, Heather, Mike Patty, Paul, Digger, Harry, Rick, Christiane, Ruthie, Derith, Rich, Cam, Rip and Sharon, Roy and Carolyn, Herm and Mary, Gary and Kay, Dan and Carol and to everyone else that we met and worked with. Dave and his cohorts worked tirelessly for well over a year. This was an enormous undertaking.

The weather was perfect, the boat tours given by Dick Mohl and his wonderful friends were wonderful, the friendships renewed and the new ones made were the best.

Dave told us there were things that were planned for this reunion that had never been done before. Boy was he right. The seminar that Harry gave helped us to understand where and how these scupltures came into being. Having Rick and Christiane there was fantastic. The time flew by and before we knew it we were on the boat back to Mackinaw City. This was a reunion planned by collectors for collectors what could be better than that.

And now of course we have a theme song....how many other collectors can say that!

This was by far the best reunion we have ever attended. (yes, it was only our second but so what) We hope we can do it all again someday soon......

Mary and Jeff

I second, third, fourth and fifth everything that has been said. We had a wonderful time and have so many memories of each day and even parts of the day. One of the nice parts of this reunion that I don't think that has been touched on yet was the opportunity to do reunion and non-reunion events, such as bike around the island, shop (always a favorite of mine) or just catch up on news (since there was a lot of it). We were able to do multiple things, so I feel like I know what Mackinaw Island has to offer. Although, I have had a fantastic time at the other reunions, we had a wonderful opportunity to stop and look at the butterflys if we wanted and to just sit back and enjoy the scenery. Thanks again to everyone for helping make our experiences at the Reunion a fantastic one.

To all the WACKOs and Non-WACKOs.

All of you deserve a special thanks too. Without your love of Harbour Lights sculptures and dedication to lighthouses this reunion would not have been possible. I got a chance to meet a few more of you. Only wish there were more time to meet you all. For those of you that took a little extra effort to make things more pleasant for me personally and every else around you. Hurrah! For those of you who who thought 'What's that old guy doing tooling around everywhere on his scooter', if I imposed on you I'm sorry and if I didn't bump into you or nearly so, you lucked out. Think how people must feel when I get into that subur'bam'.

Bubba, Susan, Heather (Miss Harbour Lights Of 19xx thru 2005), Patty, Mike, Paul, and so many others who dedicated their time and talents, I don't mean to belitte your efforts but I just couldn't read the well deserved praises you received without including everyone.

Alaska in 2008?

Fred aka The Ancient Mariner (and me in my second childhood, tsk!)

AMEN to all the above mentioned. I could not have had a more wonderful time. And thanks to Darlene and Dave for inviting me over to the bar for a drink, otherwise I would not have known about the Wacko song, and missed it's "World Debut" the next evening.

Fred, I was one of the lucky ones that bumped into you, not visa versa ! (Not really bumped into, I went looking to meet you!) I certainly enjoyed speaking with you before dinner that first night!

Even though I wasn't able to attend, I recognised through the forums how much went into the planning of the Reunion. It must have taken a lot of time, a lot of sweat, and a lot of heart. But it's because of the "organisational team" that we were able to have this reunion. If I'm remembering right, the only way that we were even going to have this reunion is if we had volunteers like this.

And also thanks to the collectors, as mentioned. Without such a dedicated group, we would have had no basis for an event like this. It's the collectors that set Harbour Lights apart from so many other collectables.

Thanks, gracias, Orio muno, and every other word on this list . Because of everyone, this was a great event. I just hope I can be a part of the next one!

Paul.... you couldn't have said it any better than that!!!
And, everything else that has been said I couldn't agree more...
Dave, Susan, Heather, Patty, Mike, Paul& Sue Brady, Jen Selwa, Judy Rath, Digger... the list goes on and on to say thanks for your contributions to the success of the 2005 Collectors Reunion.
So, when's the next one, and where do volunteers sign up?? My vote is the Pacific Northwest, 2009.

There's nothing for me to say that hasn't already been said. So dido to all above! Dave you and your crew did one hell of a good job! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I hope we can all do it again someday!

This was just the greatest reunion!!! Thanks does not see enough for all the work that Dave, Susan, Heather, Patty & Mike did to make this a very special time for all those who attended. But... A GREAT BIG THANKS ANYWAY! I also want to thank Steve (Digger) for the most unique logo yet! IT IS AWESOME! Just wish you and Becky had been there too.