What a Forum Fest!

[Meredith lady]

Thank you to each and every one of you for making the Forum Fest such a success today! To Don..our devoted Webmaster..you are the one responsible for bringing us all together via the website. Thank you! To Celia, Paul, Sue, and Bill-what can possibly be said? Your support and assistance is offered so readily and is so important. Thank you! We had so much food and it was all so good! To all the local businesses and forum members and friends who donated to our raffle...Thank you! We raised $998.00 for the Meredith Emergency Food Pantry!! Fifty dollars will be spent on back to school supplies for our local youth and the pantry will take the remainder to restock their shelves and freezer. What a good cause and what good people we have on our forum. Thank you again everyone...and this comes from the bottom of my heart. These are tough economic times for everyone, but the heart and soul of the Forum is with our neighbors who need so much.

Laura Hinchey
Meredith Lady

[webmaster]

As usual you did an amazing job Laura making it maybe the best ForumFest ever! The weather was great, many familiar forum names and faces were able to drop by, the food was really fantastic and the grill (generously delivered and provided by Kevin's Cafe) was a great addition.

Thanks to everyone who helped or contributed!

Here are a few shots from today. I don't have time or energy for descriptions right now but I'll say that yes, that is fatlazyless with the "Cyano Bacteria Balls Charity Toss".


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[fatlazyless]

Talking about cyano bacteria here; the Town of Meredith is holding an open-to-the-public educational forum on Tuesday, August 9, from 5 to 7-pm, in the Meredith Community Center. People from the University of New Hampshire, the NH Dept of Environmental Services, and the Lake Winnipesaukee Watershed Association will be presenting informational briefings on cyano bacteria with regards to Lake Winnipesaukee and Lake Waukewan.

Suggest you google "Citizen.com, cyano bacteria Meredith August 9" to read the Bea Lewis article that gets into the details for the who and what.

[Lucky1]

It seemed like a perfect day with good weather, good food, good people and fund raising for The Emergency Mededith Food Pantry. One of those "All's Right With The World" moments. I am a very Lucky 1 as last year was my first Forum Fest and while there I met a lovely group of gals who have become friends. I want to thank all the people who did so much work to ensure a great time by all and almost $998.00 for the food pantry. Heck I would be glad to donate two more dollars so we could call it $1000.00!

[LIforrelaxin]

Sorry I couldn't make it this year... especially where I had really enjoyed the event last year... It looks like there was a nice crowd... the people of this forum are really great....

[webmaster]

I would be glad to donate two more dollars so we could call it $1000.00!FLL gave me $8 that he raised with his Charity Toss pushing the official total over $1000!

[TOAD]

OH man...sorry we could not be there. Looks like a great time. Would have been nice to associate some faces with the fourm names. At least I know what FLL looks like. :laugh:

[dpg]

Those Sausages on the grill looked gooood. :rolleye2:

[Redwing]

And thanks to all of you, esp. Lucky1, who sang me a birthday chorus along with the delicious cake, donated by Heath's...that featured a little red-winged blackbird on the lower right corner of cake; Lucky1 was a "deer" to suggest that added touch!

[webmaster]

And thanks to all of you, esp. Lucky1, who sang me a birthday chorus along with the delicious cake, donated by Heath's...that featured a little red-winged blackbird on the lower right corner of cake; Lucky1 was a "deer" to suggest that added touch!Here's a picture posted by Sunset Bob:

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/data/15211/medium/DSC_00332.JPG (http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=17981)

[NoBozo]

SO: Is Rusty or Skip in the picture..?? I think....Skip was in last years picture but my memory is fading (old age) at going on 70 W/O backup. :D NB

[CateP]

Just got back to NJ and want to chime in here about how great this event was. It was beautifully organized and wonderful to see some of the people on this forum. I had some very interesting conversations and am impressed with the knowledge of this crowd. I feel like I made some new friends and am looking forward to hanging out more when I move up.

In case anyone wants to know what I look like, I am wearing a dark blue polo shirt with khaki shorts and sunglasses.

Can't wait to come back up for two weeks next weekend. (working vacation)

[Rattlesnake Gal]

I had a wonderful time at ForumFest, seeing so many Forum friends and meeting some Forum friends for the very first time.

We had great attendance and a perfect day. Thank you to everyone who came by for a visit, brought food, raffle items, bought raffle tickets, sent donations and took pictures.

The location was perfect and having the microphone this year was great - thanks Don! :D

Laura, you are simply a perfect leader that knows how to make things happen... and a natural with the mic. Thank you! Having everyone write their names on the back of the tickets was brilliant! :D

Sue, you rustled up some really great donations from so many of our Lakes Region businesses. Thank you so much for all that you and Bill did to make the day special! :D

Paul, you are so terrific at keeping me balanced and knowing when to step in to help. You really helped make the raffle go quick and smooth, making us all look good - thanks! :love:

I was so excited to win GTO's Jabra STONE Bluetooth Wireless Headset. (http://www.hellodirect.com/hellodirect/Shop?DSP=30102&PCR=1:1:5:15:160:1060&IID=13609&itemskuid=13609) Having the changeable earbud pieces allows it to fit my ear perfectly and it sounds great. Thanks GTO!

Paul and I were also lucky enough to win CateP's original watercolor painting of The Channel at Squam Lake. (Luck was only a part of it - lots of tickets help! :laugh: )
We will display this beautiful paining proudly in our home. Thank you so much for this incredible donation and it was wonderful to meet you.

I would like to close with a great big thank you to Webmaster Don for all of the time and effort that goes into Winnipesaukee.com.
You have touched so many of our lives with your website in so many ways. I'm so glad to be here and to have made so many friends... it's all because of you! Thank you!!! :D:D:D
Almost forgot to say that the new WeirsCam is fantastic!

[webmaster]

a great big thank you to Webmaster Don for all of the time and effort that goes into Winnipesaukee.com.RG, you run a close second in time and effort put into the site and you deserve lots of credit too. Many people don't realize the time you put into our event calendar, historical posts and other helpful and entertaining information that you provide. Although Laura has taken the lead planning the FF the last few years you have always been there assisting. Thanks Celia, the site wouldn't be the same without you!

On another subject, I downloaded the uStream video of the FF and was hoping to edit it down to some highlights from the 3 hour recording. Unfortunately there was a serious problem with the audio that I didn't catch until I saw the video. The audio was unusable leaving me with a silent movie 3 hours long.

Instead of giving up on it I accelerated the video and set it to a variety of music clips. Some of it is kind of funny, especially when Laura appears to be dancing to the banjo music at 2:50:

<iframe width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yDJ0pthoobw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Pineedles]

Thanks Don. I enjoyed watching the live video during the event. Thank you for setting it up. I wish I could have telephoned someone at the event to tell them that the microphone needed some sort of "wind guard", as the roar of even the slight breeze made voices nearly unintelligible.

[SIKSUKR]

In case anyone wants to know what I look like, I am wearing a dark blue polo shirt with khaki shorts and sunglasses.


Ok then who is the girl on your avatar?:laugh:

So sorry I couldn't make it this year. I did however attend a wedding on an island in Casco Bay that saturday so that was a bonus. Sounds like another wonderful FF. Congrats to all.