So tonight is the big reveal, tada! So what we’re going to do tonight is it’s behind a red curtain. So we’re going to do a little bit of a speech of how far we’ve come and thank our sponsors ’cause we had 41 of them. We had over 80 volunteers. And then we’re going to do the great countdown, and then those curtains are going to part, and everybody’s going to get to see what we accomplished.

We got this done in time thanks to East to West, which is a division of Forest River. So the cabinets was probably our largest challenge on this RV, and I don’t have the expertise. A lot of our people didn’t have our expertise. So we were lucky enough to have a talented group of women that knew it. And the easiest way to do that was to take the unit over to one of their plants, and the ladies there at East to West put the cabinets together and put them in for us. A lot has been done. So it came then back to RVTI for a while. So we were doing those little finishing touches, the graphics went on, the sinks, the plumbing, the–just those little things, the little trim that you forgot here and there. And so we finished that up, and then it went back to East to West again and they did some finishing touches on the cabinets as well just to make sure they were all correct and good. And then it came back to RVTI where we got it washed, waxed, polished, cleaned, and then we brought it here to the Hall of Fame. Now that it’s done, it’s so funny because you’re– when you’re down in the trenches, you just– you lose sight of the whole picture, right? You’re looking at these little
things and everything wrong. So I really didn’t get the whole wonderful grand finish line picture until it got here and it got staged. And I walked into it and I seen it and I’m like, “Wow, we did do a good job.” You know, you get so buried it in the little stuff that you forget what you’ve accomplished, and what we accomplished was something beautiful.

So the RV Women’s Alliance is extremely proud of this project, and the goals and the expectations that we have that were met of bringing women throughout the industry together was fantastic. And we did it through such a challenging time, which was COVID, and we’re happy to say we had no COVID cases. And, you know, during this pandemic when people were not allowed to get together, we actually were able to get small groups of women together and network, and it was just–it just exceeded our expectations in every aspect. So after the event tonight, it’s going to go over to the Hall of Fame where people that are visiting can come see it, but you also can go to drabtofab.org and there’s a button there that you could click and you can buy sweepstake tickets for the next 60 days. Starts right now, and then 3 days after the end of that, we pick a winner, and it’s yours.

The sponsors have been very generous. So we have first, second, and third prizes. And the first prize is obviously the RV, but you get the hitch. You get some other goodies. And then the second prize is camping chairs. Third prize is like a gift certificate and some cleaning products. And so, no matter what, any of the winners should be happy with whatever they get.

My final thought is its a little bittersweet. Part of me is kind of excited to have my life back because for the last 10 months this has been all consuming, but I’m going to miss some of this and getting to know new people, but I’m extremely humbled for the over 80 people that I’ve actually been able to meet and hopefully continue a friendship with. I mean, who can complain with that? It’s fantastic!