50 YEARS AND STILL ROLLIN' ALONG
2007 was a very exciting year for the San Diego Model A club, we have reached a mile stone, 50 years as a club. A small but dedicated group of people met in 1956 to discuss the forming of a Model A club in the San Diego area. In November of 1956 a meeting was held in the home of Jim Cooley, he read a letter from Bill Hall, President of MARC concerning the formation of a new group in Southern California. It was unanimously decided to name the new group “The Model “A” Restorers Club of San Diego. Temporary officers were nominated and elected that same day and a follow up meeting was planned for Dec. 7, 1956. At the Dec. meeting a Constitution and By-Laws was presented which was a simplified version of the Model A Restorers Club of Southern California. It was decided to postpone further action on the By-Laws until a copy of the National Organizations constitution could be procured. In January of 1957, changes to the Constitution and By-laws were made, and accepted by the membership. Then on February 8, 1957 the club was recognized at the national level by the MODEL A RESTORERS CLUB. Our club was born!
There was another Model A Club in the San Diego area in the late 1950's early 1960's, and the two club often held tours and events together. Somewhere in the early 1960's the two groups combined forces and formed the club that we know today. Our affiliation with MODEL A FORD CLUB of AMERICA started in 1963.
The club holds it's installation banquet in January and we used this as a kick off for the year long festivities to celebrate. Director Ed Woodruff and long time member Ray Beardslee spend hours, days, weeks going through the club history. Hence a slide show for the Installation Banquet was created to give all of us a look back into the clubs past. It was truly a festive evening. Complete with gold balloons, champagne center piece and door prizes.
A 50th Celebration committee was formed to plan a special one day event. Carol Weckman chaired the committee and a wonderful Luau celebration was planned. Danny Machado, secured the Spanish Landing site along Harbor drive with a lovely view of the harbor and downtown San Diego and arranged a catered Luau luncheon. Karen Wittkop designed a commemorative wheel pin that was made up to given to each member. The hope was to get 50 Model A in one location for a group photo, well we did better than that, we had 62 Model A's for that commemorative photo. Gates Photography did an outstanding job of documenting the days events. Members were able to order individual pictures of their cars as well as the group photos. What a celebration!
The year so far has been filled with parades through out the county, and a tour each month. The Tour in February was a recreation of the Grand tour conducted during the 1963 MARC National convention held here in San Diego in 1963 at the El Cortz Hotel downtown. This is a club that will go on for many more years. We are looking forward to our 50th anniversary as a MAFCA club in 2013.