Happy 4th of July–My Last Great Race 2012 Post (Until Next Year)

On July 5th we will take down the TripTracker widget, we will take down the fundraising widget from the blog. It’s time to get back to work, time to get back to the business of heat printing. But before that, some last “thank-yous” are in order. Thanks to all of you that followed along during the Great Race, and thanks especially to those of you who donated to The Fight Against Autism. Our team alone was able to raise over $2500 for this worthy cause. Thanks to the entire Great Race organization, all your “behind the scenes” volunteers who prepped our arrival cities and made sure we had the best time possible, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. (Watch the montage video at the end of this post to get a feeling of what it was like) Your green shirts and smiling faces were always a sight to behold when we rolled into a checkpoint. We really did feel like we were part of a family as we participated day after day. Thank you to the GroupeSTAHL team members that offered their support and enthusiasm behind the scenes, with everything from printing hundreds of Spirit of Stahls caps to making postcards, banners and helping post things on the blog, uploading pictures and keeping everyone informed of our progress. It was truly a team effort and we are glad you were there while we were on the road. Thanks to our customers and friends that followed along, commented on blog posts and to those who actually came out to shake our hands along the way.  And last but not least, thanks again to all that came out in the blistering heat on Sunday and waved posters and shouted loudly as we rolled through the gate. You were all a part of making this experience something Mary, Thomas, Benjamin and I will never forget.

One thing I can say, as we head back into business mode, is that you can rest assured that the custom garment industry is alive and kicking–we ran into tens of thousands of people along the route and one thing they all had in common, apart from their interest and enthusiasm in vintage automobiles, was that they were usually wearing some kind of custom printed t-shirt, cap, jacket or sweatshirt. Another thing that really caught my eye was that most of the logos on those garments were multi-color or full color. But we’ll talk more about that next week…Before I go and wish everyone a Happy 4th of July, there’s one more person we have to thank. Actually it’s not really a person, it’s a car, but this car really was an important part of our team, so much so that we would often talk to her, and encourage her to keep going. Which she did! Kind of like the car in the old movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. You’ve probably experienced a special car in your lifetime that seemed to take on a life of its own–which is not always a good thing–but in our case, the Lady that Wouldn’t Quit will always be remembered for getting us over the finish line. In the spirit of the Great Race, “To Finish is to Win,” this car will always be a winner in our books.

 

Sharing is caring!