At the Annual Award Banquet in January, 2020, the ORPCA Board of Directors presented the recipients of the Club’s 2019 annual awards. These members have shown exceptional dedication in giving their time and energy to make ORPCA a more fun and enjoyable for all members.
President’s Award – Heinz Holzapfel
This award is given at the discretion of the President to the member or members deserving special recognition for service to the Club. For 2019, the award was given to Heinz Holzapfel. Heinz and his wife Sylvia joined the ORPCA in March of 2018. Since then, Heinz has become a very active member of the club. He participates in tours, social events, dinners and other activities. Sylvia recently bought a Macan and they have joined the SUV group. Heinz helped plan a SUV Drive in October. He takes amazing photographs at all the events he attends. In September of 2018, Heinz volunteered to help with the update of our web site. He had the vision for what it should look like and how it should be organized. He helped pick a new company to host our web. He implemented the new framework for the site and did 95% of the work to create it. Thank you, Heinz, for your support and hard work.
Gear of the Year – Jeremy WIlliams, Tech Editor
This is awarded to the individual who is the hardest working, most supportive and most active in Club activities throughout the year. For 2019, the gear of the year is Jeremy Williams. Jeremy has been instrumental in the establishment of the SUV group for Oregon PCA but also encouraging other region clubs to do the same. Even though he lives in Bend now, he continues to organize drives like the Octoberfest drive, hikes and other SUV events. He has supported the club in allowing us to use the Matrix shop for events like the Annual Spring clean and the Autocross Annual Tech Inspection. Jeremy is also our Technical Editor and writes technical blogs for us. Thank you, Jeremy, for all your support.
Enthusiasts of the Year – Larry Wendell and Denise Jawad-Wendell
This award is given to member or members that are most active in Club events throughout the year. For 2019, this award goes to Larry Wendell and his wife, Denise Jawad-Wendell. Larry and Denise are huge supporters of the club. They attend many events including those that show cars. For example, Larry organized bringing a special 911 to the Porsche Forest Grove Concours and a car to our Germanpalooza show. While Larry was GM at Porsche Beaverton, he continually talked to new customers about the club and looked for opportunities to support the club. Larry and Denise have moved to the Fife, Washington area, but they continue to support the club, even attending our Holiday party in 2019. Our thanks to Larry and Denise for their enthusiasm for the club. Denise and Larry were not able to attend the party.
Mark Donahue Award – Anson Lytle
This award, named for a very successful racecar driver of the 60’ and 70’s, is given to the member who demonstrates outstanding motorsports enthusiasm and achievement throughout the year. This year’s winner is Anson Lytle. Anson is the silent backbone of our Autocross events. He is in charge of the registration for the event. This encompasses the tasks that make Autocross come to life. He sets up all the registration pages for the event. He takes all the registration questions that come in (there are many!) and provides answers. He checks everyone in for each event, assigns car numbers and organizes who runs in each run group. He helps make sure that the timing system is running and recording the results for every run. He also participates in the event and often wins his group! After the event he rolls up the information on every run that everyone did and summarizes the winners overall and in each group. In 2019, we did a special autocross for the Porsche Pirelli weekend at PIR. This was an incredible success but more work for Anson. We also tried to have 2 autocross events in one day. Anson did his best to make the set up for this smooth, it was difficult and very time consuming, as the software we use is not set up for 2 events in one day. Whewwww, That is a lot of work. Thank you, Anson for your passion.
Family of the Year – Brad and Carole Hedstrom
This award is given to the family who is most active in Club activities throughout the year. For 2019, this award goes to Carole and Brad Hedstrom. Carole and Brad are very active members in drives, tours, social events and dinners. They often lead groups on arrive and drives. They led the Maryhill Loops Event to a great success. Our Club had never done a Maryhill Loops event. Carole and Brad had done one with BMW and were excited to bring this fun event to our club. We had more than 30 members enjoy a fun day driving on a fun private road. Carole is our new Secretary on the Board of Directors for 2020. Thank you Brad and Carole for your support of the club
New Member of the Year – Mike Stack
This award is awarded to the new member, who upon joining ORPCA demonstrates a “can do” attitude toward events, both in participation and assuming a level of responsibility. This year’s winner is Mike Stack. Mike and his wife Stacy joined the ORPCA in late 2018. Since then they have become active members in our community. They do drives, tours and attend socials and dinners. They also both participate in autocross in their 2000 Boxster (pepper). They came in 6th and 7th in their class (with Stacy in 6th) in their first year participating. Mike also created a new column in our Anzeiger Newsletter: From My Perspective. This column is about his perspective on being a new Porsche owner and a new club member. Thank you, Mike for your passion for your Boxster, Pepper and the club
Tourmeister of the Year – Eric Lewis
This award is given to the individual who is most active in organizing and leading the various tours that the Club schedules each year. This year the winner is Eric Lewis. Eric took on the role of tour director at the beginning of 2019. He had participated in tours but not led or organized them. To kick off his role, he held a feedback session on how the current tour program was working and used that information to make some changes. He held a tour training class for people to learn how to create and lead tours. He has tested standardizing directions, implementing better route creation, and breaking into smaller groups. He created 2 of the arrive and drive routes and a SUV drive to Windy Ridge. He has really made a difference in our tours. Thank you, Eric, for your energy in this role.
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Wheels are rolling! 2025 is under way and we are off to a great start. This year marks the Oregon Region’s 65th Anniversary. As with most groups or organizations that have matured to such a ripe age, decisions made along the way have shaped the organization into what it is today. I am fortunate to inherit a well-run and well-managed club as I take on the role of President. I am thankful for those who have gone before me and who are now guiding me even as they themselves have stepped away from day-to-day club governance.
For the last nine years, the Club has been funding scholarships for automotive technician students at three local community colleges. The necessary cash to fund these scholarships is generated through the proceeds of an investment account that has grown over the last 20+ years. The Scholarship Program was set up years ago and requires Board approval on an annual basis. For the past several years, there have been numerous Board and strategy discussions as to whether scholarships are the “best” way to disburse $6,000 each year. Although the Scholarship Committee always provided a positive argument for maintaining the funding, the Board continued to struggle with the question of whether scholarships are the best use of the money we have. Once again, the Board found itself at budget approval time facing the same question. At February’s Board of Director’s meeting, the Board voted unanimously to suspend the funding of local community college scholarships indefinitely.
While we don’t have an answer to the question of “best” use of the funds that have previously been set aside, we agreed that scholarships are currently not the best fit. Although automotive technicians are people every Porsche owner needs in their lives and on their list of resources, there is no direct way to track the scholarship recipients and know for sure
if the Club investment of those scholarship dollars will ever come to the benefit of Porsche Club members. The tricky part of the conversation at the board level has been that while scholarships are benefitting a few students each year, what is the benefit to the Club? We would like to support and endorse programs that create a win-win scenario. We give some money, the recipients benefit, and the Club benefits through either goodwill or some other direct benefit.
In addition, and ideally, the Board would like Club members to feel more directly part of this giving pattern. Perhaps we can find a charity we can all agree is a good cause and set up a matching program. Perhaps we fund or support communities in some way. These are all deep, good conversations and decisions to be made. To that end, we will form a new committee to explore charitable or community focused opportunities that we may fund or support in the future. We welcome your input, ideas, and comments. If you would like to be a part of the so-far unnamed new committee, please let me or any Board member know. A couple of people have already stepped forward to spearhead the committee, but we hope to recruit three to five additional members. If you have an interest in community enhancement or thoughts about charitable giving, please get in touch with me or any board member.
I’m looking forward to getting some of the administration work of the Club completed before sunny spring days beckon for driving. There are already several events on the calendar that have me excited. Some are for the experience of driving, some for the chance to hang out with members and feel the passion you have for your cars, and others just to experience something new. I know 2025 is going to be a great year and I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.
Let’s Drive!
