Eight new nominees will be up for consideration for enshrinement into the RV/MH Hall of Fame next year with the final picks slated for Jan. 1, 2020.
Darryl Searer, Hall of Fame president, says the group of nominees are good representatives of both the RV and manufactured housing industries.
“It’s a really good field,” Searer says. “These are people who have worked hard and well for both industries.”
The final deadline for submitting nominations was Oct. 31. Each prospective nominee needed three letters of support to be considered for induction.
Searer says an industry couple are among the new nominees. They would go in as one inductee if picked for the Hall of Fame, he says.
In all, Searer says there are about 20 prospective inductees for the RV side of the Hall of Fame. They include industry members nominated over the past five years.
Other Hall of Fame News
Since the Elkhart Open House in September, Searer says the Hall of Fame has hosted four events at the new Peter B. Orthwein Pavilion. The Pavilion will serve as Thor’s Open House venue for the next 20 years, with the Hall of Fame having the ability to rent out or hold events in the pavilion during the remaining 49 weeks each year to generate funds for the Hall.
Searer says in mid-October, the Pavilion simultaneously hosted a four-day RV Super Show featuring 300 units and 11 dealers and an adjacent gun show.
“We have a number of shows already booked for 2020,” he says. “This is already meeting our expectations of what the Pavilion was going to be used for.”
Searer says the Hall of Fame Supplier Show during Open House did well with 110 booths and 83 suppliers. As many as 700 dealer representatives walked through the three-day show as did 100 OEMs.
Searer says he can make room for additional booths for next year’s supplier show. He says there is also interest in letting some suppliers set up outside the Hall of Fame.
“This was certainly not a one-and-done supplier show,” Searer says. “Nobody has called and said we don’t want to be back next year.”
For information on booth space for next year’s supplier show, contact Darryl Searer at 574-903-3850 or [email protected]
