Desert Messenger

February 19, 2020 www.DesertMessenger.com 5 Read Desert MESSENGER ONLINE @ DesertMessengerOnline .com Heroes Appreciation Day March 7 By Joanne Winer Celia's Rainbow Gardens will be holding the 2nd Annual Heroes Ap- preciation Day on Saturday, March 7, 2020. The ceremony will be held in the Heroes Bell Gardens at Town park, starting at 1:00 PM. The ceremony will start with the VFW Borderline Riders and Honor Guard. Also included will be Law Enforcement groups and Fire De- partments and other military groups from around La Paz County. It will have other fi rst responders and 9/11 remembered. There will be six monuments built to honor all these brave men and women, some who paid the ultimate price, as well as those who still work so hard for our community. Mayor Norm Simpson declared the fi rst Saturday in March as He- roes Appreciation Day and read the Proclamation at a council meeting and last year's ceremony. Please come out to Celia's Rain- bow Gardens on March 7 and show your thanks and support to these heroes. Town workers have done a great job getting this area ready and the holes for the monuments dug out so we can get the cement foot- ings poured and some work sessions organized to build the monuments. We are hoping to have a good turnout to honor these groups and are looking for volunteers to help. Please consider giving some time to be part of this great project. Every little bit helps, even just an hour. If we can get enough people to help, we can "Get 'er done" a lot faster. We are also looking to get some of the materials donated so it won't cost so much. If you have any patio stones, cement blocks, cement mix, bricks, or extra cacti or bushes to landscape with, we will gladly use them. We will also be having sev- eral fundraisers with the different groups, so please support these events to help with materials and what needs to be put on each monu- ment. For more information please come to this special ceremony or call Joanne at 928-927-6551 or see me at the bookstore. Please mark your calendars and join us on March 7th. 2020 Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show (The Big Tent) had huge crowds, great weather, and record sales By Kenny King Quartzsite, AZ – RVers from all over the country and the Canadian provinces made a big showing in Quartzsite, Arizona for the 37th An- nual Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show that concluded Sunday, January 26th. With the weather hovering in the low 70s most days, the BIG TENT was jammed with eager shoppers and spenders. Reports from several long-time exhibitors (10+ years) indicated that the 2020 RV Show was one of the all-time-greatest and sales records were broken in many sectors. With an estimated crowd of 125-145,000 in attendance, it was "smiles-around" inside the booth ex- hibit area and the fantastic weather really helped make the Midway Ex- hibit area a big winner, as the shirt- sleeve weather brought the RVers outside THE BIG TENT as well. Progressive RV Insurance, our "NAMING SPONSOR", had large numbers of current, and future, cus- tomers lining up at their Virtual Re- ality canopy area where participants could test their driving skills in a virtual boat race and compare their fi nal times and scores against the others that gave it a try. To say the least, it was very well received, pop- ular and a big attraction in 2020. Right next door to Progressive was our new "PLATINUM SPONSOR", Cummins Diesel who used theQuartz- site Sports, Vacation & RV Show to introduce their all-new line of por- table generators. Cummins arrived in Quartzsite loaded-for-bear with a truckload of portable generators, ready for immediate sale and delivery and business was brisk! Their parts & service location was fi nally relocated outside to help assist the overwhelm- ing reaction and acceptance to their new line of portables. Our "GOLD SPONSORS", Do- metic Corp., Dish Network/CM Wireless and Newpowa Solar all re- ported fantastic interest and sales of their respective products during the 37th annual event with Dometic Corp. managing two (2) separate lo- cations and a Service Bay in support of customer warrantee and repair needs. Our "Silver Sponsors", Family RV/ FMCA , High Desert Pure, Redlands Truck & RV Service, RV Country and Plasticover were all very pleased with the results of their participa- tion in the sponsorship program in 2020 and reports were that they thought the crowds were one of the largest in recent memory. We also had a "last-moment" par- ticipant that really added to the All Star line-up of the major names in the industry at the 37th Annual Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show. Ford Motor Company took all of the remaining exhibit space on the Midway Exhibit Area display- ing their Built-Ford-Tough lineup of diesel trucks that are so popular with the 5th wheel and travel trailer segment of the industry. They were totally impressed with our crowd and quality of attendee and are planning bigger-and-better display in 2021. Mark you calendars for January 16 – 24, 2021 for the 38th edition of The Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show and join us at "THE LARGEST GATHERING OF RVs AND RVers ON EARTH" For exhibitor information, date & times, photos, maps, directions and much more, please visit their web- site @ www.quartzsitervshow.com or call 714-377-7940. 2020 Big Tent recap

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