The official opening of the NAVRO club house
- Speech club house opening 28 June, 2008
- Press reports of the club house opening
Alblasserdam, 28 May, 2008 - Since the construction of our club house started last spring, much work has been done. Now it is finally time to do the official opening. This resulted in a little rush the last few weeks in doing some last jobs. Saturday morning we began to prepare the club house for the opening. In a little drizzle launch towers and the motor test stand were assembled. Fortunately the weather cleared. Party tents were assembled and tables were placed in front of the club house. Meanwhile inside the club house a computer with a slide show was placed and several rockets and other rocketry related material were put up on display. Yvonne Groenendijk had prepared some very fine snacks and made some NAVRO decorations to go with it.
After lunch time guests started to arrive. We welcomed family, friends, former NAVRO members, representatives of other rocketry clubs and officials. They finally had the chance to look at our club house we were telling them about for over a year and they all were impressed. After chatting along for a while, the official part of the opening started with a speech by our president Gerben-Jan Ligthart. He held a long speech about the history of the NAVRO and the club house. With all the difficulties encountered the last few years in making the club house a reality, he can finally close the book and concentrate his energies on real rocketry projects. His speech was followed by a short speech of his mother, Mrs. Ligthart, who made a generous contribution towards the club house. The last speech was that of Jaap de Gruiter who in his previous function as alderman in Ablasserdam helped us enormously making our club house possible. After his speech he made the official opening by pushing the launch button and under a loud siren two confetti bombs were fired over the audience. Next we were presented with several gifts, ranging from wine, a picture frame with launch photo's and a plant (we will try to keep it alive!).
Slowly, the guests began to leave and we started to clean up and disassemble all our contraptions, which all was done surprisingly fast. All in all, the day was a great success and we like to thank everyone who came to the opening. One special thanks goes to Yvonne Groenendijk, who made the snacks.
The NAVRO club house was made possible with some creative financing and a lot of hard by all NAVRO members. We also had a lot of support from several companies and persons, whom we like to thank for their support:
- Abr. de Haan Logistics (Maurits de Haan), for providing the location
- Jaap de Gruiter, who in his former function as alderman of Alblasserdam made the club house legally possible
- Idis Klusbedrijf (Dies van Iwaarden), for building the club house during personal difficult times
- Maat Transport, for the temporary storing of the prefab walls of the club house
- Tekenbureau G.C. de Jong, for funding several items in and on the club house
- LV Belettering (Louis Vinke), for donating the signs on the club house
- Mrs. Ligthart, for donating a considerable sum of money
Saturday morning we started early with assembling our launch tower in the drizzle.
Harry Advokaat and Peter Heeren assemble the motor test stand.
Erecting a party tent.
The work bench was used to display different kinds of rockets and other rocketry related things.
The NAVRO flag was raised at the gate to welcome our guests.
Yvonne Groenendijk (left) helped a lot, by making great snacks and NAVRO decorations to go with it. She is assisted here by Kees Jan Groenendijk (centre) and Gerben-Jan Ligthart (right).
And then the guests started to arrive. To the left is Richard Advocaat, a former NAVRO member and in the centre is our contractor Dies van Iwaarden of Idis Klusbedrijf.
Fred van Arkel was busy serving drinks.
Of course our guests wanted to see our club house inside. To the left are members of DARE, in the centre are Henk and Hilda Zanen, our hosts on the previous location and leaning to the window is Ad van Meerkerk.
While Dies van Iwaarden enjoys his drink the snacks are prepared by Yvonne Groenendijk, who hides behind Peter Leemker.
The official opening started with a long speech of Gerben-Jan Ligthart. The speech was about the history of the NAVRO and the club house.
Next was Mrs. Ligthart, who made a generous donation for the club house.
The last speech was by Jaap de Gruiter who in his previous function as alderman in Ablasserdam helped us enormously making our club house possible.
Jaap de Gruiter opened the club house by pressing the launch button. When a loud siren ran, two confetti bombs were fired over the audience by NAVRO members, like Arjen Plaizier does here.
The confetti.
One of the gifts we received was a large picture frame with launch pictures presented by DARE.
After the guests left we relaxed for a moment. In the background is a slide show playing of the NAVRO's history.
The day ended with the cleaning up and disassembling the launch towers and motor test stands.
