Convention 2007
- Marilyn Pridgen
Convention Committee Chair
It is hard to believe that the convention is over! After a year and a half of planning, many committee and sub-committee meetings, hours spent on e-mails and phone calls, meetings with many other outside helpers and consultants, we are left with a sense of accomplishment…the convention was very successful. As anyone who has been involved in such an endeavour would know, an event of this magnitude could not go without a few challenging moments, but we are pleased that the results met or surpassed our hopes and expectations. We could put all the time and effort into the planning, but it was truly the many people that came to the convention and participated so enthusiastically that made the event so successful. Our committee was thrilled with the great response of 212 registered delegates for the convention and over 300 in attendance at the gala dinner.
We can be so thankful for the absolutely beautiful weather that we were blessed with…rain would have presented some definite challenges.
The Memorabilia Room was an exhibit that
reflected professionalism and vast coverage of the Hong Kong story.
Allan Mondor’s work of coordinating this amazing display, as well as the
contributions from those bringing exhibits really added much to the
convention.
The Hospitality Suite, with the enjoyable music and comfortable seating, was a wonderful place to meet and visit in a relaxed setting. The Kananaskis trip turned out fantastic…great food and the entertainment was even better than hoped for, with the musicians working from a stage rather than roaming, we ended up with a western dance as well!
The youth that did the drama vignettes did a fabulous job and a vet commented that the dramas reflected his experiences very well. The Registration/Information area welcomed people warmly and provided a place where people could get information and souvenirs readily throughout the convention. The Ladies’ Tea was well attended and gave the ladies a bit of special attention and time together.
The Ceremony of Light as a time of remembrance and honouring was everything that we hoped it to be and more…with the additional honour bestowed on our veterans by the Chinese Consulate, as well as the beautiful Lion Dance performance.
The Cenotaph Service was a wonderful time of
remembrance and reflection…the military band was a great addition to
this key part of the convention. This was an especially complicated
event to orchestrate and its success well reflects the time and effort
that was put into Gail Richoz’s planning of this part of the convention.
The Gala Dinner was a beautifully done meal…Alberta Lt. Gov. Norman Kwong spoke very well and was a most gracious guest.
Sarah Curle’s song very poignantly honoured our veterans. Thank you to Carol Hadley and Derrill Henderson for your excellence as Masters of Ceremony for the gala dinner. People seemed to really enjoy the era music of the Eric Friedenberg Orchestra, which provided music that could be enjoyed by all, whether dancing or just sitting and visiting.
The Stampede Breakfast was a fun, relaxed closing event that allowed people to come and go as their schedules permitted and provided everyone with a chance to say some final farewells.
Our finances, although not yet fully resolved, were well supported through a successful 50/50, a raffle, donation box, and silent auction. The silent auction total was $4500…amazing! Thank you to everyone that supported our various fundraising efforts. An unexpected bonus in the finance area for the National level was the incredible response to the presentation about the building of the memorial wall…nearly half of the money needed for the building of the wall is now in place!
Our facility truly met and exceeded our expectations. The Hyatt as a venue certainly was a great place to host our convention…the facility housed our guests and event well and the staff was amazing in their service.
I cannot thank each of you that came to the convention enough for taking the time, effort, and finances in order to attend. It was a privilege and honour to meet each one of you and we thank you for adding to the success of the event by being in attendance.
To those that were unable to come, we are very sorry that we missed the opportunity to meet you and share in this time together. We know that some veterans were unable to come due to health concerns…please know that you were missed, honoured, and were thought of throughout the convention...we were very sorry to not have you in attendance.
I would like to thank the many people that helped to make the 2007 Convention a success, but it would be difficult to list them all here and I would be sure to miss some names. However, I cannot close my comments without recognizing the outstanding efforts of the planning committee…your time, hard work, and passion invested in this cause has been incredible: Gail Richoz and Norma Fuchs (Alta/Sask Region Executive), Coeur Birmingham (Registration Chair), Gertrude Bliss, Mae Bolger, John Dearden, Audrey and Irv Doiron, Gordon Durrant, Doug and Melodie MacLean, Ralph MacLean, Donna MacPherson, Allan Mondor (Exhibits Chair), Michael Palmer (Budgets and Finance Chair), Sheila Rattie, Karen Sampson (Events and Transportation Chair / Volunteer Coordinator), and Ed Shayler. We also could not have done this work without the wonderful support of our local veterans group, as well as Terry Kwok, a valued HKVCA member from our Calgary Chinese community.
A final note of recognition and appreciation that I cannot leave unsaid…thank you to my family for your support during the planning of the convention, as well as your many hours of hard work before and during the actual event. Thank you to my children, Christine, Steven, Keith, and Brian and to my husband Blake...I could not have fulfilled my role without your support and assistance.
We wish our veterans and the members of the HKVCA throughout Canada all the best. Thank you for the opportunity to host the 2007 Convention…we are humbled by the many kind words of encouragement and appreciation that have been sent our way. We hope to see everyone at the 2009 Convention!
Report from Allan Mondor
With the memorabilia room we wanted to create something that would be of tremendous interest to both the convention delegates and the general public and based on the feedback I think we succeeded. As one person put it "The memorabilia room was simply fantastic! The number of people who crowded it at every opportunity is ample evidence of that."
The room included a wide variety of memorabilia
items (pictures, news paper clippings, books, medals, uniforms, etc.)
like you might have seen at previous conventions but what set this year
apart from previous conventions was the room layout and some of the
special touches.
To start with the room was quite large compared to past conventions and that space was fully utilized. Glass display cases borrowed from the Glenbow Museum and the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary added another dimension to the room and allowed us to safely display irreplaceable items supplied by our convention delegates and the Museum of the Regiments in Calgary. A large video screen and seating area was setup at the far end of the room to draw people into the room and boy did that work! Throughout the convention pictures from the past couple conventions and last few trips to Hong Kong were displayed on this screen along with various documentaries on the Battle of Hong Kong.
To our surprise, this video screen not only drew people into the room, but it also kept many of them occupied for hours! Some of the other additions this year included a donation box and guest book. We invited the general public to visit the memorabilia room throughout the convention so donation box and guest book was a way for them to contribute.
In total nearly 30 individuals supplied content for the memorabilia room. There is not enough room to mention them all here but I would like to highlight a few. The Military Museums in Calgary supplied the mannequins and the two cases used to display the uniforms at the front and back of the room. They also supplied the uniform on display at the back of the room as well as several items on display in the glass cases throughout the room. Ralph MacLean supplied the uniform on display at the front of the room as well as most of the items in the large display case at the front of the room. Joyce Rollick supplied the overcoat on display at the front of the room near the sales desk as well as many of the items used to fill one of the smaller display cases near the back of the room, all of which belonged to her husband Peter. Ed Shayler supplied most of the items used to fill the large display case at the back of the room. He also supplied his entire collection of information on Hong Kong, which was contained in several of those binders in the middle of the room.
Rick Crawley brought in his huge collection of WWII memorabilia and as a special touch Rick even dressed up in his uniform at times throughout the convention. Vince & Stan Lopata brought in the "The story of The Battle of Hong Kong" display that was recently created by the Manitoba Region. It's a professionally built trade show type of display that will allow the Manitoba Region to take "The story of The Battle of Hong Kong" on the road.
Ron McGuire brought in his large display on the Postal History of C-Force. Ron also had an opportunity to give his presentation on the same subject just before the general meeting. Pat Turcotte and the Ontario Region had a display to publicize information on their newly established Essay Contest. Lena Webster from Veterans Affairs Canada had a display to educate veterans, widows, and the general public on the services and benefits they provide, including the VAC website. Lena also supplied material for the booth setup in the hotel lobby which was used to direct people up to the memorabilia room and the other convention activities that took place on the 3rd floor of the hotel.
As mentioned earlier, there isn't enough room here to mention everyone who brought in items for the memorabilia room. So I would just like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who provided content (pictures, letters, news paper clippings, books, etc.) for the memorabilia room. The same goes for all the volunteers who helped setup and staff the room during the convention, THANK YOU for your help. The memorabilia room would not have been the success it was without your contributions. A special THANK YOU also goes out to John Kenny, a volunteer from the 264 Legion in Calgary, who was on hand providing security for the memorabilia room for the duration of the convention.
In the last few days leading up to the convention we decided to extend the hours for the memorabilia room. That was sure the right thing to do. People took every opportunity they could get to spend time in the room. These extra hours made the convention quite hectic for me, but it was well worth it to see all the people so into what was on display in the room. Whether folks were paging through the large number of binders or scrap books, studying the contents of the display cases, watching one of the documentaries on the large screen, chatting with Vince about his C-Force POW lists to track down a relative, or chatting with any of the other volunteers to learn more about their displays, everyone just seem so interested in the moment.
The memorabilia room was definitely a busy place and we even had a few special guests pass through. Rory M. Cory, Senior Curator / Director of Collections, Museum of the Regiments in Calgary stopped by Thursday afternoon with some of his staff to take stock of what we had on display. Rory is planning to create a one-year temporary display on WWII in the Pacific and would like us to contribute to that with our memorabilia from the Battle for Hong Kong. Mr. Nishimura, Deputy Counselor General, Japanese Embassy, and 2 of his staff came for a long visit at noon on Friday. Stockwell Day (grandson of Major Bertram Gilbert, RRC) stopped by for a visit before the Memorial Service with his mother Gwen Gilbert Day.
Last but not least, I would like to report that to my knowledge everything on display in the memorabilia room was returned to its rightful owner. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are missing anything from the memorabilia room or if you ended up with something that does not belong to you - Allan (403.670.8892).
Michael Palmer – HKVCA 2007 Convention Treasurer
It was quite a year as treasurer for this convention. Everyone helped out so much and it was very enjoyable to be apart of such a wonderful committee. Initially, there were times when we thought it would be quite a challenge to pull off a balanced budget with respect to the vision we had for such a quality convention. But, in the end, a balanced budget was achieved.
My wife had just given birth to our third child shortly before the convention so I was unable to attend all convention events due to family commitments. However, I did manage to spend some time in the Memorabilia Room and I attended the Ceremony of Light and the Dinner/Dance Gala.
Allan Mondor did an outstanding job organizing the Memorabilia Room. He had received a surplus amount of display items and his layout (along with his videos/audios which were a very nice touch) certainly worked well with respect to the steady stream of attendees. There was rarely a moment when there weren’t people in the Memorabilia Room and it was quite busy most of the time. It was also nice to reconnect with some of the Memorabilia Room helpers (Darrell Henderson, Vince Lopata, and Ron McGuire) I had met back at the 2005 Convention in Ottawa. Kudos to Vince Lopata for organizing and bringing the amazing professional Hong Kong Battle Display.
The Ceremony of Light was a big success – the bagpipes and candles certainly were a great addition. The speeches were wonderful and it was nice to see the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in attendance. And who could not forget the Chinese lion dancers?
The Dinner/Dance Gala was also a night to remember. Many wonderful speeches again and it was nice to have The Honourable Norman L. Kwong (Lieutenant Governor of Alberta) in attendance – and the Eric Freidenberg Orchestra certainly brought us back to a different era. It was fun to see the vets still kicking up their heels – led by Gordon ‘dancing fever’ Durrant. It was tough to keep up with him.
Overall, the biggest highlight for me was just mingling and sharing a few drinks with the Hong Kong veterans and listening to their stories. Such spirited fellows and it was wonderful to see so many veterans in attendance.
A job well done by all. Looking forward to the convention in 2009!
Display used in
Calgary Malls for Convention Donations