District 8 MVPs

Pattern competition is made possible by a small group of people who work very hard to promote Pattern. In 2004 I developed the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, designed to honor one person in our district each year who went above and beyond the call of duty in promoting and supporting our hobby. I will give this award every year to an individual I select based on support to Pattern in our district. The winner does not need to be a NSRCA member or even a pilot. I hope that future District VPs will support this tradition!

If you would like to nominate someone for this honor please contact me at gaa@owt.com.

2007, Mary and Ray McClellan

I have selected Mary and Ray McClellan as the 2007 District 8 MVPs. Mary and Ray have been supporting District 8 for more than 20 years with the best know and longest running contest in the District. This was oblivously a good choice because when I announced this at the end of the 2007 Creswell contest Mary and Ray received a standing ovation! Its pretty clear that the pilots of D8 support this years MVPs!

If you have never attended the Creswell contest I recommend you give it a try next year. You will have the privilege of meeting the McClellans and seeing first hand all the effort that goes into this truly outstanding event.

Mary and Ray, thanks from District 8 for many years of support and many more to come!

2006 MVP, Rex Lesher

I awarded D8s highest honor in 2006 for the D8 Most Valuable Player (MVP) to Rex Lesher for all his support throughout this year and years past.  Everyone in D8 knows Rex.  Rex is one of those guys that will do whatever it takes to help out his fellow pilot.  I can’t count how many times I have seen Rex tune up an engine or perform some field repairs to help someone out.  He is a very generous man and gave a very good pattern airplane to a pilot in need to keep him flying.  I met Rex at my very first pattern contest in Auburn, Washington in 2001 and we have been close friends and flying buddies ever since.  Thanks Rex for all you have done for D8!

2005 MVP, Meri Anderson

I started flying Pattern in 2001, during the 2002 season my wife, Meri, joined me at every contest in D8 and has attended every event sense. Meri came to know all the pilots in the district and really enjoys the events. Starting in 2004 Meri began helping at the events, this included helping with scorekeeping and running the events. During the 2005 season Meri was key in organizing and managing contests, she performed the scorekeeping at most of the events in our district.

Meri has devoted a tremendous amount of her time and energy making the events in D8 enjoyable, the pilots of all our events notice and appreciate this support as can be seen by all the signatures on the award we presented her at the EAC contest.

Pattern flying just would not be the same without Meri's support and it was clear to me that she was the 2005 MVP, congratulations!

2004 MVP, Gary McClellan

Gary McClellan is a Pattern icon in the pacific northwest. He has been a big supporter of Pattern through a number of activities. Gary is the CD for the Creswell EAC contest, this is one of the best attended events in our district. The event includes the usual flying activity coupled with a lot of great social activities. The contest closes with a huge raffle! This event draws pilots from two other districts because of its outstanding reputation. Gary has also organized a number of Judging Seminars and always keeps current all the latest rule changes.

Gary was proactive in developing the first D8 Pattern Primer that resulted in nine potential Sportsman giving it a try. We gained a couple new pilots from this very well designed primer.

Congratulations and thanks for your outstanding support!

D8s MVP Gary, giving a batch of Sportsman some training!

Send mail to gaa@owt.com with questions or comments about this web site.

Revised: 09/09/2007