NCM Blog Station

One of the many missions of the Museum is education, and for years enthusiasts and supporters and talked about the exciting opportunity to drag race, autocross and have driving training in an area on the Museum’s campus. With much discussion, planning and effort - we have begun a fundraising campaign to fund 70 plus acres at the Exit 28 across the interstate from the Museum.The campaign was officially announced during our Corvette Celebration weekend. Our goal is to raise $1,060,000 to fund the land acquisition. Future plans would include constructing a Motorplex Park with a ¼ mile drag strip, an autocross/skid pad area, and a 1.5 mile road course. The building expansion is top priority at this time, but obtaining the land to have these opportunities open for the future of the Museum was very important and something we just couldn’t pass on making happen.

The park will give us a chance to offer the facility to clubs and Corvette enthusiasts to compete and use during our events or perhaps their own. There are many opportunities open to be a part of the exciting educational Motorplex Park and information can be found via our site at: www.corvettemuseum.org or call us at: (800) 53-VETTE.

Gifts of all amounts are appreciated to help us reach our goal. Supporters may also “purchase” acreage to help fund the project. We hope you will join us in this exciting adventure to take the Museum to another level of education, preservation and celebration.

It is hard to believe that the we are on the verge of a 14th anniversary celebration - time does fly when you are having fun! The Corvette Celebration held annually each Labor Day weekend is a time to mix and mingle with friends, members and supporters - and to be a part of a special weekend as a part of the Corvette Museum family. This year’s celebration is just around the corner - August 28-30. All Lifetime members will be admitted at no cost, other than the additional fees for the Corvette Hall of Fame banquet and extra activities. Other levels of membership can register for only $10 plus the additional activity fees, and all non-members registering will receive an individual membership as part of their registration package. This is truly a members only event and one that we look forward to each year!

The Corvette Hall of Fame induction ceremony held in conjunction with the Corvette Celebration is a time to meet and greet the legends of Corvette. This year’s induction honors Racing legends - Allan and Don Barker, Super Tuner and Performance Engineer - Reeves Callaway and Corvette Engineer -Maurice Olley to our existing group of of elite recipients. Our website has information and photos on past inductees, so be sure to take a look.

The event will also give us a chance to recognize our 10 and 15 year members. Memorable road tour excursions, special video presentations, a poker run, seminars, Corvette raffle, Celebrity Choice car show, auctions, the annual open Membership meeting and more are planned. We will also be sharing our plans for the Educational Motorplex Park. There will also be entertainment in the out amphitheater!

This is a special event that means alot to our team. It is a time to reflect on the past and share the future with our members and supporters. We hope you can join us for the fun. Registration is open and all pre-registered before August 15 will receive a complimetary lapel pin and event dash plaque. Find out more and register online at: http://www.corvettemuseum.com/registration/celebration/info.shtml

It will be great to celebrate with you!

As part of the recent Bash event, we had the exciting privilege to host an official ground breaking of our 47,000 square-foot expansion and what a ground breaking it was! Hundreds of on lookers sporting the official “NCM Ground Breaking” hard hats joined a celebrity line up including goverment officials, tourism representatives and particpants excited to be a part of the monumental occasion.

The ground breaking ceremony included comments from our honored guests, photo opportunities, shoveling of the dirt and taking turns at twisting the wrench to mark the first piece of steel to be erected as part of the new expansion.

Webcams feeding live to onlookers showcased the thrill and the feel of the ceremony as a sea of hard hats waved to the camera. During the comments made by our Executive Director Wendell Strode, an anonymous donor called in to offer $500,000 towards the building expansion efforts!

You can watch our construction take place as it happens by logging on to our “Construction” cam at: http://www.corvettemuseum.com/webcam/camera9.shtml
Our expansion is scheduled for completion as part of the 15th Anniversary festivities and we hope you can join us for the grand opening of our new addition! The Museum will host the 4th National Corvette Caravan as part of the festivities too and registration to sign up for a caravan near you is open - so get ready to roll along with thousands of enthusiasts from across the world on a memorable journey to Bowling Green in August 2009!

If you would like to see more about the Bash event and our ground breaking festivities, visit our “event” section of our website at: www.corvettemuseum.com and click on the “past event” picture link. We have many exciting things taking shape at the Museum and we love sharing them with you!

If you have any thoughts or questions concerning an event, special activity or if you would like to share your comments with us - feel free to get in touch with us.

The Bash event has been one of our most popular events for many years, and it is no wonder why. With it being the first event of the season, everyone is excited and ready to get into the sunshine and enjoy the friendships and fun that the Corvette brings. The Bash has been around since 1997 and attendance continues to climb - and so does the elevation of activities!

The event offers guests in attendance activities that are not only common for an NCM hosted event, but ones that truly keep enthusiasts coming back for more. Have you ever attended the Bash event or any event the Museum has hosted? You can’t imagine what you are missing.

We have awesome country roads that are perfect crusing as part of our planned excursions to various historic sites and attractions Kentucky is famous for. We have the movers and shakers of Corvette on hand to rollout the new 2009 models and answer questions. Seminars to education and inform you on various arenas of the Corvette world and exciting banquets, auctions and car shows - just to name a few of the activities.

The Bash is one of the highest attended events for many reasons and mostly because of the chance to mix and mingle with old friends and new friends at the home of Corvette. This year’s Bash is also very important because of our ground breaking festivities planned to recognize our expansion. The Bash is the perfect event for new Corvette owners and the cultured owners.

Pre-registration for the Bash ends April 11, and we hope you can join us at this year’s Bash. We guarantee you will have a great time and you will want to return each year. The Bash is just one of many events we host both on site and off site and chances are you have attended at least one event at the Museum in the past.

If not, take a look at our online event coverage available via our website at: www.corvettemuseum.com - just click on events and then go to “Past event pictures”. Photos from the 2000 Bash event through last year’s are posted online. We hope you enjoy them.

You might find a photo of yourself drag racing, or perhaps testing your skills at the autocross track. Either way, we think you will see why an NCM event is just a bit different from other events.

We couldn’t do events without our volunteers jumping in to help. So, when you arrive at the Museum this year and see a member with a “volunteer” shirt on - be sure to say thanks for the help. You really never know what you will learn or what you will see at a Bash event, so get your camera ready. It is a real experience!

If you have any questions about the Bash event - just give us a call or view the online agenda via our website. Again, online registration is open until Friday, April 11 and all pre-registered guests will receive a commemorative dash plaque, lapel pin and personalized event badge. We hope you can join us and look forward to sharing some time with you.

The Museum has hosted three National Corvette Caravans since our grand opening in 1994, and anyone who has been a part of an NCM hosted Caravan and Anniversary Celebration event knows what is in store for those saddling up for the journey!

A Corvette caravan is more than just a group of Corvette enthusiasts traveling the highways and byways, it is a journey that is unforgettable. Ask any NCM member of passionate Corvette owner about an NCM caravan and the journey to Bowling Green and I bet you will get some very interesting stories. We have heard many of them and look forward to once again hosting the 4th National Corvette Caravan in recognition of our 15th Anniversary in 2009.

Kathie Summers, Caravan Chairman along with Caravan Captains from acorss the U.S. have been planning route activities for months and will continue working on routes and stop overs, which will be an experience all in itself. Gas up the Corvette, pack your bags and get ready if you like road trips of the adventurous nature.

Registration opened several months ago and captains for routes across the U.S. are already in place. Our website features a map of the various routes across the states and can help you decide which caravan best suits you. You can also see some very exciting pictures from past caravans that show a small taste of what a true traveling Corvette caravan is all about!

Via our Caravan site you can also chat with other folks planning to travel along and share in the stories of those who have already experienced an NCM hosted caravan. If you have some vacation time to spare in late August and early September of 2009, why not register for an experience that only a Corvette owner traveling with hundreds of other enthusiasts can share.

Hundreds are already signed up and networking with their captains and fellow road trip friends. We hope you can join us. Plans for the 15th Anniversary Celebration festivities will be coming to our website soon and will be the grand finale of the caravan arrivals. It is truly a sight to see and the arrival of the caravans is the highlight of the event! Just visit the special Corvette Caravan section of our website at: http://www.corvettecaravan.com/ You’ll be ready to pack your bags and hit the open road before we can say “start your engines”. We hope to see you soon - Happy Caravaning!

Seeing the dirt moved and smoothed in preparation for our groundbreaking ceremony in April is very exciting. Daily, we step out and take a peek from the back door and begin to imagine the new structure that will soon become part our Museum. Many of the team members have been here for several years and the expansion is something that we have heard spoken of many times - and now it is real!April will be here before we know it and our friends will be arriving to join in the Bash event festivities and the ground breaking ceremony planned on Friday at 4 p.m. as part of the event. It will be a “sea of hard hats” if we everyone jumps in and pre-registers and doesn’t forget to get the hard hat to commemorate the ceremony. It will be quite emotional for most folks and something to see and remember.Our building fund is growing thanks to so many and currently stands at $3 million in gifts and pledges. Perhaps this is the first you have heard of our expansion, we hope you will take a look at the plans we have and get excited with us! Our website features a breakdown of the various areas of expansion and exterior plans. Approximately 130,000 visitors tour the Museum each year and attend events, so with the new display space, cafe, library and other areas, we feel pretty honored that we have the duty of telling the story about Corvette’s past, present and future.

We invite you to visit our website and find out whats moving and shaking at the Museum, register for an event or just stay in touch with us through our weekly eNewsletter NCM eNews. www.corvettemuseum.com