The 2008 Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo was held May 9 and 10, at the Champlain Valley Exposition Center in Essex Junction, Vt. The annual event was a huge success with heavy turnout of both exhibitors and attendees.
This well-run expo, sponsored by the Northeastern Loggers' Association (NELA), draws approximately 6,000 attendees from throughout the entire Northeast and Canada, from loggers and landowners to sawmill operators, all interested in an up-close look at the industry's latest big equipment and machinery or attending several informative seminars.
Yankee joined forces with other northeastern Farm Credit Associations to sponsor the annual Loggers' Expo banquet and Lake Champlain dinner cruise on Thursday evening as the show's kick-off. This is Farm Credit's fourth consecutive year sponsoring the banquet as our way to help support the vital forest products industry. Our staff also enjoyed spending time with customers and friends and watching several Vermont representatives take home prestigious NELA awards, including Ronald Lamell, Sr., of Lamell Lumber in Essex Junction, who earned the Outstanding Sawmill Operator award; Ed Larson, Vermont Forest Products Association from Montpelier, who won the Outstanding Leadership in Industry award; and Pete Wimmelman, of Wimmelman and Son Logging and Tree Service in Wilmington, who won recognition as the "Outstanding Logging Operator of the Year."
Several Yankee employees staffed our booth, including Middlebury's Ken Button; Mike Farmer, Chuck Custeau and Tom St. Pierre from our St. Albans office; Newport's Ken Buzzell and Loren Petzoldt; and Bill Heath and Jeff Temple from our White River Junction office.
Mike Farmer and his staff drew the lucky winner of our drawing for a STIHL® MS 361 chainsaw, which more than 750 attendees signed up for. The winner was Joel Currier, a sawmill operator from of Danville, Vt. Ken Buzzell, of the Newport office, covers that territory and will deliver the prize to Joel.
Next year the show will return to Bass Park in Bangor, Maine, May 1 and 2, 2009.
