Museum events for May.

[Cindy]

Hey Gang, please check the updates on the site www.overheadtimes.com
We have several activities planned for the cave diving museum this month. Dive-rite donated $1000 for gear and several other have donated prizes that we will be selling raffle tickets for. We have an open house coming up in two weeks and lots of door prizes to give away that day.
We are displaying equipement on loan from Larry Green and owned by Sheck Exley (on loan from the CDS) amoung others.
I hope to see you soon! Cindy

[Cindy]

Oh, You do not have to be present to win. Dive-rite, Jim Wyatt, Tom Johnson, Steve Gamble, the CDS, the NACD have all generously given prizes for the raffle. If you buy tickets online and live out of state or cannot be there for the drawing I will mail the tickets to you. If you win I will mail you your prize. Have a great week people! Cindy Butler

[flyczek]

Cindy,
I am going to drive out from Texas just to see this museam I've heard so much about. Are you going to be open on the 26-28th at all? Count me in for some raffle tickets too.
Thanks
Brandon

[Cindy]

Hey Brandon, We will have a booth at the CDS workshop on the 27th. We are open the 28th. On the 28th we are having a book signing by Barbara am Ende "Beyond the Deep" and we will have the raffle drawing that day also. Boy, all the way from Texas just to see our museum! I think you may get a door prize for that one. Cindy

[Cindy]

More good news! Add to our raffle ticket prizes signed photo prints by Wes Skiles. They are very cool! Valued at $150. The drawing will be at the museum on Sunday the 28th. You do not have to be present to win. Tickets can be purchased online at www.overheadtimes.com
More to follow, Cindy

[Cindy]

The open house is today! Stop by for food and door prizes! Cindy

[FW]

How did the grand opening go? Did you have big crowds?

[Cindy]

Hey Forrest, we had a good day. A couple families from the community stopped by also. You need to stop by and see the place some day. Cindy

Cindy, is there any way one could find out exactly what's in the museum? I was talking to my old instructor today and asked if he had anything he would like to donate (he started cave diving in the 1970s). He said he had cobra guards and cages, horsecollar BCs, really old reels . . . What do you need? I looked on the website to see if I could find out what you already have, but couldn't find anything.

Shall I call you, Cindy?

[Cindy]

Hey, We are just starting and need pretty much everything. I am just now getting enough items to fill the place a bit. We need enough gear that we can do progressive displays for each type of gear. The closest we can come to that is with manifolds. Bill Oigarden brought us his personal collection of five that show the progression of how they developed through the years. Also I hate to give someone a list and not have them give us something that is unique because of the history behind it. A reel used to lay the first line in Madison blue may be one that is common but the story of how it was used, who owned it etc. makes it unique. What we are asking now is for people to donate what they have with a small write up of the item. We will sort out what we want displayed and either return or store for later any repeats. We really have not gotten more than one or two repeats. Most vintage cave diving equipment was either hand made or altered by an individual. Things like line arrows, old examples of line, dorf markers, masks, fins, bc, clorox bottles, etc. may not sound very exciting but they are needed. We don't have a metal backplate yet for example. Just think if it has some meaning to you then it will most likely make a cool exibit.

We are still lacking in books, photos, maps, videos and other forms of media that are cave diving related. All we really have of those items are from my personal collection.

Not to make this too long a post but intact collections are very important and hard to find. Part of the frustration is that a set of gear from any one era just does not seem to exist. Mary Ellen Eckhoff has joined our BOD and is helping us reconstruct a full set of gear that Sheck Exley used. We can't put one together right now. We need a full set of gear from each decade. Then I can "loan" or put displays into other museums as well as have complete ones for us. Just personally contact me or any BOD member if you need any more information. Remember anything you donate is tax deductable.

Cindy Butler