10th Annual Earlies at Baker's

You may want to grab a coffee or a cocktail while you read this post as I have a lot to say. We had 80, YES EIGHTY, people register at the Baker's 2014 Van Show. There were vanners from several states and Canada displaying their vans or just being a part of the show to pay their respects to the man ... the G-Man. I may forget to thank a few people and I'm sorry if I forget to mention you but here's what I recall after about a 12 hour day, and several weeks worth of work. Thanks to Joe, Robert, Steve, and anyone else who helped me throughout the day. Thanks to Virtual (Doug) for donating the memorial dash plaques. Thanks to Don for donating the memorial window stickers. Thanks to Pat for donating the drink coozies. Thanks to all who helped set up, tear down, sell tickets, etc., all day long. Thanks to Baker's for donating their 50/50 profit to Chris' family. Thanks to Del (who won the 50/50) for donating the winnings back to Chris' family. Thanks to Chris' family for showing up to the event to honor Chris (there were at least 20 family members). Thanks to Ken, who was helping Chris on his latest "early" project for coming to the event. And most of all "THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED IN THE EVENT"!!! By selling the donated items, raffle tickets, and via people just plain handing me money for the family we raised a total of $1407.00 today for the Hatswell family! In addition within the last couple weeks I received another $195.00 worth of donations via PayPal. So within the next couple weeks I will give Chris' wife, Teresa, another $1602.00 from the very generous vanner family. Thank you all! I am so proud of all of you! Please keep Chris' dream alive and start planning on Baker's 2015. I'll have more to say/post after tonight but I wanted to at least start out with a "thank you" while some of these things were still fresh. And if you were there and took pictures, please post them. I know Virtual (Doug) scaled the Baker's building to take pictures from the roof! I can't wait to see how those pictures turned out. Chris was definitely watching over us and made sure we had perfect weather for a memorable show. Miss you Chris. Thanks again everyone!!!

It was an epic Bakers, Billski you did a great job ! So happy everything worked out so well. You must be exhausted now. I hope you are able to continue this great tradition and have someone help out just like you did for G-Man for many years. It was my first Bakers, I was only able to stay a short while but would do it all over in a heartbeat. I'll let my photos tell the story:

On Photobucket: https://s627.photobucket.com/user/showvans/library/The%2010th%20Gathering%20of%20Earlies%20at%20Bakers

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10152178773206129&type=1

I already checked out the FB pics, great job! Thanks for sharing so fast with everyone who couldn't be there!

Great Pics Virtual...Thank You
See you all soon
Jim in NJ aka Casimier

Thank You for posting the pics on Photobucket.It was a great day for a great cause.It was sure nice to meet some of the members.Some super nice vehicles,now I know how much work mine needs.Looking forward to next year.Great job!!!

Great job Billski. I know it was tough up there but you got thru it like a champ. You made Chris proud I'm sure. It'll never be "the same" but it can definitely continue on as there's a lot of support out there for this event. One for the record books for sure. Let's carry on the tradition next year:-)

Thanks Econo...always great to see you! I do plan on continuing as long as possible. I had a great time and have already thought of ways to streamline a few things. That way I can enjoy the show a little more. I only made one pass through the endless line up of vans. I think our motto for our show and location is "We Filled The Hill"! Thanks again to everyone. Still riding a "high" from Sunday.

Bill Thanks for posting, pictures look great. Since Ive never been to bakers, what has the turnout been in the past? How many were you expecting?

Thanks for posting those pics. Some day I will make it to this event. It sure looks like a great time is to be had at these get togethers.  

,   As I remember last year was around 53(I think,that was the most so far) Bill said Chris had made up 60 goody bags for this years show.

At the first Baker's we had 5 vans. I believe last year also to have been around 53. This year I was hoping for 60 and I know we beat that but I'm just not sure by how many. We had 80 people sign in and not all drove vans but I bet we had close to 72. Hoping to keep that same number if not even more next year. I know we had more VWs this year than ever which was a nice addition. We did have 60 goodie bags and dash plaques and unfortunately ran out. Next year I'll make 70 of each and hope I'm still don't have enough.

Looks like there was a great turn out of vans!!! I wish I could have attended..

Funny. I just mapped its location and Milford is 28 minutes from Fenton, MI. Which is where I found our van! Ha!

Great pics!   

I had an awesome time for sure. Wish I could have made it to one earlier. Hopefully bring my Chevy next year. Thanks Billski for your hard work.

Great Job Guys on the Photo's a Awesome turn out for sure with a Bunch of Sharp Looking Van's..!!!. We are going to try to attend Next Year also...   

Great job on Sunday Billski!  I prayed hard for good weather, lots of vans and we got it!  I had the most vans/vanners ever in my driveway the night before; 10 vans!  And many vanners here for the first time to honor G-Man.  I invited Robert to stop by on Saturday night which he did in G-Man's van that he had purchased.  He did not plan on bringing Chris's van to the show on Sunday, but with much urging by all the Vanners at my house, he got on the phone and found a driver to follow him the next morning; thank you Robert!  He is very excited to own Chris's van and now owns TWO early yellow Chevy's.  I'm sure he will take exceptional care of it and has many plans for it.
Good to hear that there will be another show next year.  Let's see if we can get even MORE vans!
I've never posted pics in this forum and am going to try to post my pics.  Thanks again Billski for all your hard work and thanks to all the Vanners that came from all over to this show!

Deb  2% forever!

It was good to see you there deb, and the van still looks great...

Thanks Bill for mentioning me in honor of one of my good friends. i was touched by the presentation of everything that you did for him and all the vanners.i was really looking forward to finish his 66 i will miss him dearly. and thank you for all the hard work that you did. Ken

not sure how but i missed meeting you there ken...

Thanks for the additional kind words and words of encouragement. I've already made some adjustments to how I'll run things next year. And Deb, if you keep up with the number of vans at your place you may surpass our Baker's numbers! I'll have to get your address so I can stop by next year and enjoy the Pre-Baker's.