Wednesday, June 14, 2006

 

RV MUSEUM ADDITION

Bob Ashley
RV Business
Tuesday, June 13, 2006

The Go RVing Coalition will sponsor a 5,000-square-foot exhibit in the new RV/MH Hall of Fame/Museum that is scheduled to open to the public in October and will support the facility with $200,000, renewable annually.

The announcement was made Monday (June 12) during a coalition meeting in conjunction with Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) Committee Week at the Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The exhibit will feature five new RVs, a small theater with a 50-inch plasma TV and computer kiosks that will connect visitors with Go RVing’s website.

“We wanted to contrast the old with the new,” said coalition member B.J. Thompson, president of B.J. Thompson Associates in Mishawaka, Ind.

According to Gary LaBella, RVIA vice president of public relations and marketing, “This will take the facility from being just a museum to so much, much more.”

Last year, the Go RVing Coalition financed construction of a $200,000 state-of-the-art electronic sign at the site of the new hall of fame/museum in rural Elkhart (Ind.) County adjacent to the Indiana Toll Road.

The sign will advertise the Go RVing market expansion program and also display RV-related commercial advertising.

Staff for the RV/MH Heritage Foundation Inc. will move from its current location in downtown Elkhart into the new building in October, which initially will house the RV/MH Hall of Fame gallery, a display area for the 34 historic RVs the foundation already owns, a library and foundation offices.

The special exhibit hall that will depict the evolution of the manufactured housing industry, a 20,000-square-foot convention and convocation center, and a wing to display industry historian David Woodworth’s collection of antique RVs and camping memorabilia will be added later.

The official grand opening of the new facility will be in August 2007.



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