Friday, October 1, 2004

All of the attendees began lining up at noon in the Grand Ballroom to pick up their registration materials. Everyone was so excited to see old friends and to chat with new friends while waiting. We picked up an envelope that had tickets for everything we had pre-ordered, including our dinner entrées and event gear. Then we picked up our registration bag – it was absolutely loaded with goodies! Candies, cups, pens, paper pads, a Beanie Baby, and tons of other neat stuff from clubs, dealers, HBC, and HOP! Next stop was to pick up our event pieces and event gear. Then we deposited our prepaid raffle tickets in the bucket anticipating the big raffle on Sunday.

After mingling with friends, it was time for the games to start. Everyone who wanted to play the HK games was given a colored button. The color of your button indicated which cluster of balloons your team was located by. The first game was a Scavenger Hunt. The twist, however, was that the items on the list had to be on someone's person right then and there - no going elsewhere to find it! The second game was an outside Treasure Hunt where contestants had to locate various landmarks in the blocks near the hotel and answer questions associated with them. After these games were completed, the top two teams moved on to the final match – a Family Feud: HK Style – to determine who had bragging rights as the winning team! Members of these two teams answered questions relating to Harmony Kingdom categories and pieces.

Participation in the games was excellent! And everyone enjoyed themselves!

Harmony Ball set up a display in the Warwick Suite of upcoming Harmony Kingdom releases as well as current releases in the Lynda Pleet menagerie, Story-Time by Olszewski, and others. A representative from HBC was available to answer questions and to chat about the various lines.

Throughout the weekend, Door Prizes were awarded to attendees. Names were periodically called out and the winners received their door prize. Everyone was a winner in the Door Prize giveaway!

A surprise guest at the event was Martin Perry! It was absolutely delightful to have Martin join us in Philadelphia. He chatted with attendees about Harmony Kingdom and his new line, Fragile World, which has caught the hearts of many HK collectors.

After a short break, attendees gathered on the 3rd floor of the hotel for a very nice reception. A string quartet provided background and we were treated to a sumptuous array of food and drink! It was a great opportunity for folks to meet and greet.

Following the reception, a number of collectors opened their rooms for Room Hopping. HOP provided balloons to be placed on the doors so that we could look down the halls and see which rooms were open for us to visit and possible purchase some secondary market HK items early.

The Hospitality Suite was open during the day's events and was it ever nice! It was in the Presidential Suite of the hotel and featured so many amenities it was unbelievable! It even had an oversized jet bathtub! Now, that's luxury! The Hospitality Suite provided drinks and snacks, including some great baked treats provided by Jessie Pierce (Aunt Foda)! A wonderful place to sit and chat with other collectors and it was open pretty much the entire weekend. A wide variety of volunteers took turns playing "host" in the Hospitality Suite.
 

Saturday, October 2, 2004

The morning began early with the HOP Annual Meeting for delegates and alternates from the various independent collector clubs. Elections of HOP officers were held and other business discussed that will be relayed to your clubs.

Then the Paint-Your-Own activity and the Lucky Dip got underway in the Grand Ballroom. Tables were set up and paints were placed on the tables for collectors participating in the Paint-Your-Own. After working diligently, collector artists submitted their masterpieces for judging by Peter Calvesbert, Monique Baldwin and Noel Wiggins. We have some very artistic folks amongst us! Some collectors were so engrossed in their efforts that the morning hours were no enough time, so they moved over to the Warwick Room to continue painting for a few more hours.

The Lucky Dip had an incredible number of prizes available! And it wasn't long before all the tickets had been sold and the prize table stripped of all the goodies!

The afternoon was set aside for the Swap 'n Sell and more signing by Peter and Monique. Approximately 20 people had retired HK and other collectibles for sale at the Swap 'n Sell. It was very well attended and the sellers were, in general, pleased with their sales.

Included in the morning and afternoon events were piece signings by Peter Calvesbert and Monique Baldwin. Collectors were given a signing ticket (which was a nice collectible by itself!) for a specific time to have their pieces signed. A surprise for everyone was the presence of Martin at the signing tables, in the morning as well. Because all of the event pieces were signed in advance of the event, collectors were able to get their other treasures signed by these great artists!

Saturday night was the wonderful event banquet - the Murphy's Marble Dust Awards! Everyone looked so nice - all dressed up and beaming! The dinner was outstanding and served very nicely by the hotel staff.

Following dinner, the Murphy Awards were announced. The awards were given to a specific piece in a number of categories. A volunteer collector represented each piece. The politicking leading up to the final vote was one of the highlights of the weekend! Some of the representatives dressed up in costumes and others gave out treats in order to entice votes for their piece. The battles were hard-fought and it was glorious to win! We even had one winner removed from the stage by the hook since her speech ran too long!! It was heard that one of the nominees in that category admitted that while she really wanted to win, she was happy that she didn't miss the acceptance speech of all time!

HBC decided to raffle the Lynda Pleet and Olszewski Story-Time items displayed rather than ship them back to Columbus. The drawings were held at dinner and raised around $2,000 for NAMI.
 

Sunday, October 3, 2004

Sunday started off with a delicious brunch buffet for attendees. The food was so yummy! Following the meal, the raffle drawings were held. Talk about some fantastic pieces! As names were called, the ticket-holder proceeded to the goody table to choose their prize. The raffle assisted HOP in making the event profitable and provided a $5,000 donation to The Aark, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Philadelphia.

After the raffle, the auction was conducted. Proceeds from the auction were donated to NAMI (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill) and amounted to $11,900! Many of the items were one-of-a-kind and bidding was frantic! Volunteers walked amongst the tables showing the piece currently up for bid.

After the conclusion of the auction, folks began preparing for their departures from the hotel and Philadelphia. Many of us had a very difficult time getting all of our goodies safely tucked away in luggage for the trip home! But we all left with such good memories of the weekend spent with other Marble Dust Addicts! And, now, we are looking forward to the next one!
 

Thank you, everyone, for making this event a success!

LET FREEDOM RING!
NEWSFLASH - NOVEMBER 3, 2003

NEWSFLASH UPDATE - FEBRUARY 12, 2004

NEWSFLASH UPDATE - JULY 29, 2004

NEWSFLASH UPDATE - OCTOBER 7, 2004

NEWSFLASH UPDATE - DECEMBER 12, 2004

"MURPHY'S MARBLE DUST AWARDS"

LET FREEDOM RING! COMMITTEE

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RAFFLE OF A LIFETIME

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