We are pretty amazing.

   I don't know how we do it.  I do remember contacting Doug Johnson whose name I found on some little scrap of directory of train clubs buried on the Internet back in December of 2008.  He said he was going up to South Paris to do a train display.  So I went up to meet him. He was nice and I asked him how to build an outdoor RR.  He invited me to join and I went to the Spring Meeting where our first BOD was formed. Little did I expect that 4 years later we would be hosting the longest running model train display at what I believe is the best facility we could ever find in Maine.  And, doing it for the 3rd year in a row!  Each year more people become involved and the display becomes bigger and better.  I truly don't know how we do it.   I mean we are not a large organization.  But we manage somehow to bring together enough volunteers to pull this off and we enjoy doing it!  How is that possible?  I guess we are just lucky!  The Maine Mall is part of a giant Corporation but they treat us, and we feel, just like family.  The Security guards, the Food Court people, the Service people, the Management people all provide a friendly welcome environment for us.  The biggest return we receive is smiles of appreciation, little children's excited faces, words of thanks, and all from people we never met before.  Stories, questions, comments, all favorable.  Think about it, we are Lucky to be part of this!  It is great, it comes at the perfect time of the year, lasts a long time and is in a great location offering all the conveniences we need.  Plus it provides a continuous flow of people who are interested to see what we are doing. That is the secret ingredient, PEOPLE!
   Speaking of people, this year something new happened.  Fourteen members and family members combined to produce the greatest volunteer fund raiser in MGRS history which was charity gift wrapping at the Mall.  It was the ladies which showed us how to do it.  They organized themselves into efficient teams and did a fantastic job!  And, all without any help from us train guys.  Wow, all we can say is THANK YOU and we hope we can learn from your bonding experience.  Perhaps some of the bonding you have done may lead us to something different as an organization.  Who knows?    We do have a Spring Meeting and lunch coming up.  Perhaps we can discuss some new ideas for this summer.  Train rides, trips, activities.  We earnestly want to engage more members and family members, particularly those that live farther away or cannot participate at the Mall with ideas that they can enjoy during the Summer time as we join together in other types of event activities.  The Mall is great, but we do have 10 other months in the year and we want to include as many people as possible in other things that we do. Who knows what we will think of. As a group: We are pretty amazing!