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Due to the problems that are delaying the latest issue of our club's magazine, I'm going to go ahead and post this request here.
Every year, the NDC awards an Hernando De Soto Award as well as five Special Achievement Awards (SAA's). Do you know an NDC member, or a group of club members, who have done something special for our club or for De Sotos? Perhaps she, he or they have been extra helpful in finding parts or information about De Sotos for other members. Or maybe they have helped out other members with their cars, or answered lots of questions on our club’s message board or Facebook page. If so, then now is the time for you to submit your nominations for these awards.
The Special Achievement Awards are presented to our club members who have gone that extra mile during the previous year to help our club, our members, or our De Sotos. Anyone who is a member of our club may nominate another member, or group of members, for this award. If the member(s) being nominated has already won a Special Achievement Award at a previous convention, then this nomination would have to be for a different reason than that for which they have already won. Last year, our five winners were the Colonial Chapter for their special De Soto display at the AACA Museum, Rick Wresche for all of the work he does for our Great Lakes Chapter, Bob Baer for all of the work he does for the DeSoto Owners Club of Maryland’s newsletter, David Frank for stepping up to run our website, and Dan Lyman and Geoff Overley for quickly organizing and showing photos of the winning cars at our conventions. Examples of past winners are: members driving cross-country for our conventions, providing special trophies for our conventions, writing articles for our club’s magazine as well as being the magazine’s editors, compiling a complete set of the club’s magazine issues onto a thumb drive for members, parts reproduction projects, extraordinary membership recruitment, starting a chapter, chapter newsletter editor, dash plaque artwork, calendar editor, coordinating a gathering of De Sotos during the Carlisle All Chrysler National, driving a De Soto in a Great Race, proofreading our club’s magazine, fixing our club’s website, and being the club’s librarian for over a decade.
The Hernando De Soto Award is presented to our members who have done the most for our club. This annual award is the highest honor our club bestows upon any of our members. The effort that the member has demonstrated and is being nominated for may have occurred at any time during our club’s existence. Last year, the winner was Cheryl Bianco. In addition to being the DeSoto Owners Club of MD chapter secretary since 2015, she is also their Special Events Coordinator and has managed an annual car show co-sponsored with the Plymouth Owners Club of MD. She also arranged chapter meetings, luncheons, workshops, over-night tours, etc.; behind-the-scenes work for our 2016 NDC Convention in MD; and the gift basket challenge during our 2019 convention. Examples of past winners for this award are: club magazine editors, writing articles for our club magazine, webmaster, club Treasurer, bringing in many new members, having De Sotos present at other national car shows, club store manager, and parts reproduction efforts.
If you’re going to submit someone for our Hernando De Soto Award and/or one of our SAA’s, please send your nominations to Bill Noble at nobledesoto@ameritech.net. Please have your nominations in no later than 20 June, 2021. Thank you for your participation in the acknowledgement of the special efforts put forth by our members.
by Bill Noble
Special Achievement Award Coordinator
