Checker Car Club of America

The Checker Car Club was back home in Kalamazoo from July 13 to 16 with the convention HQ at the Holiday Inn West.

 

Our hosts, Gwen and Jim Garrison, pulled out all the stops to give our members, friends and family members an experience that they will never forget.

 

On Thursday, we had great tours of Bell's Brewery and Heritage Guitars followed by a car show and celebration at Bell's downtown brewpub.

 

As usual, many of the attendees stayed up late to trade stories about their Checkers in the hotel parking lot or enjoyed conversations in our hospitality suite where Checker parts were also on display and available for sale.

 

On Friday, we took our Checkers about one hour north to Grand Rapids to visit Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. This was a fantastic experience for all and certainly an event with sensory overload (sights and smells that are unforgettable).

 

Later on Friday, many people visited the Geral Ford Museum just a few minutes drive from Meijer Gardens. Reports from that visit indicate that a lot of American history was learned by those who took the time to stop by.

 

Saturday was the big day for our Checkers which were on display to the publc at the Gilmore Car Museum. As usual, the staff at the Gilmore proved to be great hosts and we were overjoyed to see many former Checker Motors employees come out to see the cars and trade stories.

 

Saturday night brought us all together at Theo and Stacy's restaurant for our annual banquet. The food was great but the conversations and laughs were even better. Then back to the hotel parking lot for more of the same.

 

After Sunday breakfast, many attendees headed home while a fair number took a ride over to Chris Markin's place to buy Checker parts and continue the conversations. Chris was a great host to us all and even made gifts of scale model Checkers until there were no more.

 

As usual, this convention was yet another success pulled off by the Checker Car Club, the one and only original serving its members since 1982.  

 

Hats off to Gwen and  Jim for pulling off a fantastic convention!