Fellow E-12ers:
I am here in my Montana office listening to the melodious tunes of John Denver as I am wont to do each year as I sit down and write to each of you who participated in Extravaganza 2012, our tenth annual foray into the wilds of Montana. Both Kathy and I were blessed with your presence again this year and I hope that with you, as it is with us, the sounds, smells and magic of E-12 yet lives in your lives.
Our goal this, our tenth, year was to do something very, very special and, with over a year and a half planning, I am still rewarded by the looks on each of your faces as we announced, via our film, that you each would be taking home with you a custom made, reeled and cased bamboo rod from Sweetgrass Rods, the finest rod makers in the world. As you look back on how those rods are/were made, reflect with me on the single handed stunning beauty of all that we witnessed this year: the rivers (their beauty and bounty); the vistas (by and large uninterrupted since the days of Lewis & Clark over two hundred years ago); the bamboo (pristine, elegant, beautiful in you hands as it was in those of its makers: Glenn Brackett, Jerry Kustich, and Dave Delisi, each of whom travelled from Twin Bridges, MT on multiple occasions to be with us this year); the camaraderie (over 80 of you mingled and co-mingled so elegantly together while you were here); and the hilarity of it all (the trees around Headquarters yet ring with the peal of your laughter!). Reflect upon and that we did both individually and collectively; reflect upon the sound of the rivers; reflect upon the sounds of the birds (the screeching of the osprey and the eagle); and reflect about the simply solitude and simultaneous warmth at being as one with Mother Nature. Reflect upon the simple, elegant beauty of it all.
We hope that your E-12 respite with us was a fun, nurturing and rewarding one. We sure caught a lot of fish (well over 1500 in my book—congrats again Group Threer Bill “Bull” Dodd on your 31” Extravaganza record-tying bull trout!); we sure drank a lot of wine (with Group One again getting their long-standing award for the most case ingested in just five days!); and we sure met a lot of interesting folks along the way, starting with Newt Gingrich at Group One’s Opening Day lunch and cruising right through the tenure of E-12 with Tom France, Kit Fisher and daughter Trina “Boots” Clausen all of the National Wildlife Federation; with Grant Kier and Glen Marangelo of the Five Valleys Land Trust (in our celebration of the saving of the mouth of Rock Creek from adverse development); with president Tim Aldrich, Executive Director Dick Paulsen, and Development Director Jeff Hagener all of the Montana Wildlife Federation; and with our wonderful Montana Matters songsters, Troubadour Shane Clouse and inimitable Bob Wire. Simply stated, there was never a dull moment!!
The primary purpose of the Extravaganza is for your Hostess With The Mostess, Kookin’ Kathy, and I to open our doors to this parcel of paradise we were fortunate to find a decade ago, to welcome you into our home as members of our extended family (both business and social) and, for veterans and you now-former rookies out there alike, to show you a time the likes of which you most likely never have experienced before outside our purview: We wanted you to see the treasures that this wonderful Treasure State has to offer and, as we parted ways, to provide an easy opportunity for each of you to “get involved”, as Kathy and I have, to do our part to make sure the wonders that we were able to witness are here for your children and their children’s children, just as in Group Three where young Joe O’Dea had the opportunity to experience Montana in a manner that he otherwise never would have had, and to experience that at the same time with my three grandchildren, whose E-12 smiling pictures honor this desk from where I now write. To that end, thank you each for becoming Wildlife Legacy Council members of the Montana Wildlife Federation (whose mission it is to preserve, as is, all that you witnessed while you were with us) and thank you each for frequently visiting our www.montanamatters.com Montana Matters website to serendipitously make an on-line purchase or contribution reflecting your lingering and perpetuating reflection on all that you witnessed while you were with us this year—as I mentioned to each group, if each of us were to give the equivalent of “a latte a day” to this wonderful campaign (y)our Montana world will continue to be a better place.
John Denver’s “Sunshine on my shoulder makes me happy” now sings overhead--thanks for being our sunshine this summer during E-12,,,”sunshine almost always makes me high”—y’all sure did that to us this summer for which Kathy and I now extend to your our perpetual thanks and hope that the spirit of Extravaganza 2012 lives with you forever. May you forever cast (y)our bamboo with our knowing love and appreciation; may you think of us often and smile as you so do; may you forever reflect upon the beauty of these “wild Montana skies” (thanks for that timely ending cue, Mr. Denver!).
Best to all in conclusion of it all,
Rock Creek Ron
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p.s. Now it’s onto Extravaganza 2013, to which you are all are most cordially invited…stay tuned!
