[BUMP FROM EXACTLY A YEAR AGO.] Whups, I’m late in putting up a notice for the QWS. (Except I did mention it on my Facebook page, yo.)
It’s this Saturday, 3/3 [not 3/5 this time] — a full day of fun indoors, if you can stand it. …If it’s sunny outside and there’s still snow on the ground I will have a HARD time staying inside, I tell you what! (I must be self-medicating bigtime for the winter sun this year.)
I never tire of giving the once-thru for this event: it’s the only university-sponsored outdoor show in the USA. And it’s the only volunteer-run one, too. And it’s dedicated as much to education as to commerce. It has the true spirit of the Land Grant institution it’s based out of: MSU. Land Grant is about access and about social uplift. A school is, I’m sure, tempted to forget that in these days of corporate-funded research and construction, which we see sprouting up everywhere on campus. I’m not even sure that catering to business, even in terms of philanthropy, is where the public generates the most horsepower. (Like, it was nice that Carnegie gave us so many libraries but he also did a lot of actual worker-killing.) Anyway, how many MSU full professors teach undergrads anymore? Anything interesting happen to MSU class sizes in the past decades? How about tuition? …Just sayin’ that everyone has to work to remember their roots.
And roots is what the QWS is about.
Bikes, boats, skis, skills. Clubs and projects. All on display.
You can easily get a table there if you’re someone working on an outdoor-oriented project and want to show it to the public. It started with homestyle boat-building but it’s expanded to run the gamut.
I have an OYB table there, too, and like to fantasize that my early pushing of the boundaries has something to do with the current wide-ranging general tone of the show. Back when it was just boats I was bringing my HPV and longbow and ski-sled. Some people groused but many more liked the opening effort. The name has cachet, though, so it has stuck even while the mission has moved beyond just water. Everything around here needs water, though, so we’re still good.
There will be 100+ booths and 1500+ visitors. A dozen presentations.
It’s a great cabin-fever busting day indoors. See old friends and make new ones.
Canoecopia at Rutabaga in Madison, WI, is coming up the next weekend. www.canoecopia.com Now, I sure would like to check it out someday. There you get to see all the big outdoor companies in full flower. …But you won’t see any table with someone’s skin boat project displayed on it in pieces. …Nor any smalltime indie media dude’s project. Of course, it’s good that there are all kinds of shows. It shows lots of clubs, schools and nonprofits, I’m sure. Sadly, I bet that not many Michiganders get over to it. So we have our QWS, done our way.
