Renkenberger Award Recipients

The Mid Atlantic Chapter has selected John and Laura Casey as our most recent recipients of the Renkenberger Spirit Award – an award established by NAMGAR to allow chapters to recognize members for their meaningful contributions to their local club.

John and Laura exemplify the objective of the Spirit Award with their many contributions to the club throughout the years they have been members. Presented with the award by club president Toby Fitzkee at our annual meeting, Toby noted John willingly shares his time, mechanical skills and technical knowledge with fellow members to restore the performance of a faltering MGA or diagnose a frustrating intermittent issue, while explaining in a simplified manner that provides the member with a better understanding of MGA component functions.

Together John and Laura have graciously opened their home to host several of our club’s social events. John and Laura have taken the lead in planning many of our extended overnight drives to such destinations as Bar Harbor, Watkins Glen, Lake Placid, a tour of Pennsylvania’s cover bridges as well as numerous Drive Your MGA/Magnette Day events. John and Laura also successfully planned and led some of our club drives to GT events – reasoning why would you not travel northeast to Buffalo and through Canada to reach Michigan to our northwest! When the idea of an MGA winter drive outing was discussed to fill in the club’s activity schedule, Laura volunteered the ladies as the ‘cruise’ organizers. And that my friends, explains how we found ourselves aboard a ship on the Caribbean Sea, sans MGAs – now an annual January event for our club!

John has also served multiple terms as club president, establishing a dynamic of enthusiasm that has encourage more members to participate in our extended drive outings. As club leadership rotates among members, John continues to offer his support and encouragement, ensuring the transitions are seamless.

The nuts & bolts of the ‘what’ John and Laura have contributed during their time as members of the Mid Atlantic Chapter may gloss over the fact that John and Laura are simply kind, thoughtful and caring folks that demonstrate our club’s family-first environment. Together their compassion for other club members embodies the very contributions the Renkenberger Spirit Award seeks to recognize, and it is our club’s honor to do so with this presentation.