BBC Snippets

Link: http://www.freelists.org/archives/bristol-birds/03-2008/msg00108.html

BBC President Larry McDaniel was walking on clouds Saturday, Sept. 13, 1997. It was the night of the Bristol Bird Club's 47th Annual Banquet and he was so worried about going in the red financially on the night that he could hardly enjoy his dinner.

In a nervous back room meeting, after everyone had left, BBC Treasurer Lorrie Shumate put her calculator in her purse and told Larry he had almost paid the bills.

Larry McDaniel

The largest crowd of birders known to attend a bird program in the region had just left the building -- 167 people turned out for the BBC event. It was a moment to remember.

Bob & Martha Sargent from the Hummer/Bird Study Group (HBSG), a non-profit organization from Alabama, had come to Bristol to spend a couple of days with BBC members and to be the club's after-dinner speaker. It was a real stretch to pull it off. The club would have to come up with all  kinds of expenses and meet the demands of many logistics. It would be more than the usual everyone-pay-for-your-dinner event.

Many people have a hummingbird feeder. The public is nuts about their hummers. Ruby-throats come as close as any species to being the darlings of our region bird world.

So here is how it was going to come down. BBC would fork up the risk of inviting the Sargents and making sure the club had a place big enough to hold the crowd the club expected. McDaniel searched far and wide.

Finally, it was decided that the fellowship hall of the Central Presbyterian Church on Euclid Avenue would do the job. An added benefit was that the church had another meeting room off that where BBC could seat its members for an annual banquet before the talk. A kitchen was just across the hallway.

Ken Hale, a prominent member of the church and former president of BBC, went to bat for the club to schedule the facility and be the church member to sign off on the building use. BBC had to pay for the facilities.

The Sargents wanted meal money for their travel, gas money, and a hotel lodging for two nights.

So the annual BBC event that night would be underway with a prime rib dinner, salad, baked potato, green beans, rolls, cheese cake, coffee or iced tea. If you wanted chicken, fine.

Everyone was excited. There had been much publicity in the region's media and magazines. Flyers were printed and stacked in key places around town.

The 47th Annual Banquet was beautiful. The Burkey family and their young daughters gathered weeds from the roadsides and placed them on the tables in Ball jars. The birders dressed up.

The public started coming early. The club had a nice crowd on hand and things were looking up. The only uncertainty was a guaranteed way to pay the bills. It wasn't going to be cheap. Members paid for their own dinners.

During the introductory remarks, the legendary Jack Kestner, the mountain man from Hayter's Gap walked in the back of the big room. He wrote his views from the top of Clinch Mountain each week for the Bristol Herald Courier. He always wrote much about the coming and goings of hummingbirds. Jack was dearly loved by thousands. Most had never seen him.

Jack Kestner

When it was announced that Kestner had just walked in, more than a hundred people came to their feet trying to get a glimpse. Some of the young folks stood on their chairs. It was an exciting moment birders did not want to forget.

Bob and Martha Sargent, then living at Trussville, AL, put on a dazzling color slide show about hummers. He is author of many significant publications on the subject. He is one of America's best known hummingbird banders -- an absolute expert on all that.

The crowd loved it. This was a free talk. Everyone was welcome to just come in an enjoy themselves. Bob Sargent took questions from the floor.

It was a great educational opportunity for hummer lovers and birders.

Finally it was over and the applause was heart warming.

The visitors were told that BBC had a lot of expenses for the event and if they enjoyed the talk and thought it was worth a donation, they could drop money in a glass bowl by the door as they left.

Bob Sargent

They dropped $314 in the bowl as a token of their appreciation. Mercy. What a relief.

Expenses $738.00. Income $726.50 = BBC was in the red $11.50. How much better could the club have done on such a roll of the dice for such a great evening ?

Many meetings and dinners are expected to cut it close. BBC didn't know if it could cut it at all. :-)

Larry McDaniel walked away tired, happy and got a good night's sleep.

In addition, the Sargent's held an invitational field trip for club members and took them birding to Musick's Campground at South Holston Lake. The club likes to have rewards for the good BBC members who work hard to make good things happen.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club