This was the 14th Annual Mail Pouch Barnstormers Picnic (13th Anniversary!)
“News from the 14th Annual MPB Picnic“
by Bill Vint – Fall 2015 edition of the ‘Mail Pouch Barnstormers’ newsletter
For the 14th consecutive year, Mail Pouch Barnstormers gathered in the hometown of noted barn painter Harley Warrick to swap stories, shop for Mail Pouch memorabilia and share in food and fellowship.
The annual picnic, meeting and auction got underway a report that the club had among its activities over the past year, it had successfully participated in saving the historic Mail Pouch sign on the side of the Buckeye Candy and Tobacco Building in Mount Vernon, Ohio, from destruction by alerting the building’s new owners, Kenyon College, of its historic significance.
The Barnstormers also had several conversations with the producers of the Barnwood Builders, a television show airing on DIY (Do It Yourself) Network, who had expressed an interest in taking down a Mail Pouch barn and rebuilding it, but the project never materialized.
Other highlights of the gathering included:
● The club remains financially solvent, with more than $6,700 in the bank as of the 2015 picnic;
● Gyla Schnauffer, who has managed the kitchen and picnic activities ever since son Lonnie helped found the picnic, announced she’s ready to step aside and will turn over the picnic duties to Cindy and Jerry Kolosky, who have volunteered to help keep the tradition alive;
● Roger Warrick, president; Chris Maher, vice president, and Eddie Black, secretary, were re-elected to three-year terms on the Barnstormers’ board of directors (and later re-elected to one-year terms as club officers) while Chad Wilkins of suburban Columbus, Ohio, was elected to a one-year term on the board to fill the vacancy created by Dave Tower’s retirement from the board.
● Executive Director Bill Vint announced the club is going to actively pursue a special gathering for the club’s 15th anniversary in 2016, centered around a “painting party” to restore the well-known Barkcamp State Park Mail Pouch barn near Belmont. Details will be announced later in the year.
● The winner of the Mail Pouch birdfeeder design contest, winning a year’s membership, was Doug Stanley of Dillsburg, Pa.
