On the the origins of the GMCWRT
A letter to the Webmaster by Gail Blake
Guy,
I guess I can give you a simple history of the GMCWRT; not much to it really.
A small group of folks, 10 I believe, took a CW history course, main subject: Gettysburg, at Lebanon College, taught by none other than Jack Anderson. I Think that was the fall of 1992. The grand finale for the course was a 4-day Trip to Gettysburg. We had such a great time that we began tossing around Ideas to perpetuate our camaraderie and shared interests. Starting up a RT Was one of our brainstorms, but nothing much came of it right away.
Early in the winter of 1993, Jack gave me a call and asked if I was still I\interested in forming a RT. How could I resist? So we got together, set out A few general guidelines for ourselves, Jack bestowed the RT with its name, I Found us a spot to meet, we sent out a mailing and voila, we had our first Meeting in March of 1993! Subject was a general discussion on the beloved Gen. McClellan, we never saw some of those folks again!!!!! Can't remember Exactly how many folks attended the first meeting but we had a nice crowd, Maybe 20 or so. We started out with 10 members and now I think we have 60-70. Jack is the true founder of the RT. I was just his enabler.
We are totally non-profit, all monies left (not too much) after expenses are Donated towards CW battlefield preservation. We have given money to Grant's Cottage, Cedar Creek, Gettysburg (towards the burial of the power lines along Emmittsburg Road), Third Winchester, and I believe we also made a small Donation to Malvern Hill. Our main fundraiser for the past several years has been the Full Duty Banquet, we have found that working in conjunction with Other Vermont CW groups allows us to raise a substantial amount of money towards preservation, something we would not be able to do on our own. Plus We have met some really great people!
The balance sheet info wouldn't be very newsworthy; it hovers quite low throughout the year, but we manage to keep our nose above water.
Significant events? I guess our journeys. Starting with a day trip to Grant's Cottage, then off to J.L. Chamberlain's home in Maine, then we hit the big time with the Antietam & Harper's Ferry trip. Full Duty, of course, and our Adopt-a-Position commitment.
We changed meeting places once, so far anyway, started out at Than Wheeler's, next door to the Coolidge, but after a couple of years we outgrew that and moved on up to the Coolidge.
Guess that is about it!
Gail Blake
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