Those who have "been around" long enough will remember Cozee (Greg Cozad) starting
the Midwest Penturners Gathering (MPG) about a decade ago in Urbana, Illinois. After
four years, Low48 (Rich Coers) continued the tradition in a super-human single-handed
presentation for another four years. Then, the Ohio IAP contingent volunteered and
the event was moved to Wadsworth Ohio for the last four years. The event has seen
tremendous growth over all these years. From a few hours at a union hall to a three
day event in a fantastic hotel. Great demonstrations, vendors, and new activities.
Most importantly great friendships, conversations, and sharing of ideas.
Now is the time to take the next step. Starting next year the Midwest Pen Turners
Gathering will rotate host cities to better serve the pen turning community. We
are considering a three city rotation. The first new location up is Chicagoland.
Look for dates and times to be announced over the next few weeks. Chicago offers
a nice central location for many turning clubs and will be ready to continue the
direction the founders have started. The thought is that each city will have its
local club facilitate the event, but keep in coordination with the other host cities
to maintain consistency.
The nucleus of the Chicago team is Ed Brown, John Underhill, and Mark Dreyer, but
we know we will be asking for volunteers to help out. If you have any suggestions
or would like to volunteer let any of us know – the earlier the better. We look
forward to keeping the quality of the event that the teams in front of us have started.
|