Greetings INSAAC members and Spring Flingers, we hope you and your families are doing well during this Covid-19 pandemic. It is with great sadness that we had to make the decision we were all hoping to avoid, which is the cancellation of the 43rd Shelby Spring Fling that was scheduled for May 15-16 😟 I can assure you that Steve & Joyce Yates, Doug & Ellen Scott and the rest of the Board Members never in a million years could have imagined a scenario that would cancel the Fling – let alone life as we knew it world-wide. The reality is we are currently on travel advisory’s and stay-at-home mandates thru May 1st, with many expecting that to get extended. It would be foolish to think life will return to normal by May 15th and host an event with 300-400 people - putting our members and spectators (and their families) at risk.
Why cancel and not postpone you might be wondering? Well the simple fact is the State Park and the Abe Martin Lodge would not be able to accommodate our group on any other weekend during the summer months, and the pool (our show site) opens for business the following weekend. Rescheduling would also lead to other conflicts with social schedules, and the last thing we want is to pick a date that wouldn’t work for everyone – because we all look forward to the Spring Fling all winter long! So with that, everything we have been planning for the 43rd will carry over to May 21-22, 2021.
So what now? Please be patient with us as we work through all the pre-registrations. We will be issuing refunds for all charges with the exception of Membership dues that were paid. This could include a credit via PayPal or a check mailed to you. But again, please be patient with us it could be a few weeks before we get caught up. If you made a room deposit with the lodge, please call 1-877-563-4371 to cancel your reservation and get your deposit refunded. Do not call the Abe Martin lodge directly as they are closed and have limited staff.
Finally, we are adjusting our plans for the Fall Classic at Spring Mill State Park to include the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the 1970 Shelby GT-350/500’s. We will be moving things up by a day, with a Driving Tour to take place on Friday (October 9th), and the Fall Classic Car Show on Saturday (October 10th) at the Spring Mill Inn parking deck. This is not meant to replace the Spring Fling by any means, as it is for classic vehicles only, from 1962-1973 and space is limited. As the summer approaches and we (hopefully) can get back to some normalcy, the Board of Directors will get together to finalize all the details. Look for a mid-summer newsletter with details, and as always you can keep up with events on our Facebook page.
We appreciate your understanding of this difficult decision, and more importantly we appreciate your continued support of the Spring Fling. We wish you all the best as we get through these unprecedented times, and most importantly we hope you and your families remain healthy. I can’t believe I am saying this, but we look forward to seeing you all in Brown County in 403 days!