I
December, 2020
Dear friends & members,
As promised, here’s our second newsletter.
Of all the people we emailed, a surprising proportion responded with
interest in joining the group, enough that in my estimation we have a
viable foundation of members. We have a group large enough to be
of value already, and also one large enough to grow. It takes a rough minimum to spread the word well enough to encourage other people to join, faster than those who are already members have to drop out, and I think we’ve got it.
So I’m optimistic as I write this. I hope some of you are optimistic as you read it!
As I see it, the foundation of the whole thing, of whatever we do or become or accomplish as time passes, is fellowship ~ forming bonds, however humble in their beginnings, with other members, starting with nothing more in many cases than communicating.
Whether members of victims’ families, or people with no familial connection who were drawn for one reason or another to the disaster or to the group, we all stand to gain by getting together. Naturally this isn’t literally feasible for now because of the on-going viral crisis, but we can join each other in emails or on the phone. Besides, a meeting at the South Rim would be impractical now anyway ~ we’d be snowed in or snowed out or snowed under!
Our idea at this point is for members to simply contact other members, to say hello and to start the process of becoming acquainted. To facilitate this, we’ve put together a list, a directory of members, which we would like to send to all of you. But first we’d like to know that you want to be contacted or are willing to give it a try to see what happens. So we are asking all of you who are interested to let us know. Our rough target date is February 1, 2021, and we plan to send out the list to everyone who responded affirmatively. It will be a directory of the same group of members, with the remaining members omitted for now, and until they tell us to include them.
Let’s see how things go ~ we may even be able to set up a multi-person video connection. Let’s meet and get to know each other; we can consider an actual get-together later, with one or more programs, and projects after that.
We hope that you have a nice Christmas, even if you’re not planning to be a part of a large group of family and friends. We aren’t. We intend to just stay home, just me and Barbara, and enjoy the wonderful feelings together. We will have a Thanksgiving dinner on Christmas Eve, and in keeping with the sparkly, exciting character of Christmas, a zesty authentic Mexican dinner on Christmas day. And hopefully a few nice presents. The kid in me always gleefully anticipates that, and I always hope that what I receive will be at least as much of a “toy” as a useful, practical item.
Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you, and hopefully a new year that is better than the one that’s ending. We’ll be in touch. We hope you will, too.
Sincerely,
Mike Nelson
President of Patrons of the 1956 Grand Canyon Midair Collision
P.S. We took the photos at our place.
bn: Barbara Nelson, Secretary of Patrons of the 1956 Grand Canyon Midair Collision
