The Shellers’ Jamboree was held this past Memorial Day weekend. As always, the Clearwater club, worked very hard and we had an interesting weekend.
Beginning on Saturday morning there was a 4 hour flea market where registrants could sell items. While we were getting settled in, there was Shell ID, Shell measuring and the silent Auction.
There were old acquaintances to greet and in our packet two word searches and a word Scramble. A packet of cartoons where we were asked to provide the captions was also included.
The festivities began after lunch with a spoof on shell collectors from different clubs, with our own Bob and Alice Pace donning fishing gear and “fishing” for shells. After that we had lunch.
The first program was Rick Batt speaking about Sand. Different beaches were explored including glass sand. That was followed by Dennis Sargent on “The Discovery and Description of a New Conch Species”.
After the first two programs we had a game called the BEACH Shell Hunt. We had teams based on our name tag colors and had to come up with as many names as possible using only Genus or Common Names. Anne Joffe was captain of a team, consisting of Jose Leal, Bill Lyons, Jim Cordy, Rick Batt and myself. We came up with 67 names for the highest score. Yea TEAM!!!
After the game, Dr. Jose Leal gave his program “Cowries: Natural History, Diversity and Cultural Impact.”
A game was played involving small bottles of sand with 40 items buried in them. We had to see if we could find all 40 items. It was quite interesting as objects would show themselves and then hide again.
Shortly after that the Silent Auction ended and we had a Happy Hour and our dinner buffet.
After dinner Anne Joffe, gave a program “Shelling in Guaymas, Mexico.
At that, our first busy day ended and we all retired to our motel rooms.
Sunday everyone who wanted to entered the Snail Parade, Coastal Creations and Treasures of the Sea. Another Silent Auction began. The first program was Morums A to Z, by Dr. Harry Lee. We then had a verbal auction with any extra monies going to Bailey-Matthews Museum. At 12:30 we had a BBQ lunch.
After lunch, Carole Marshall gave a program “Micro mollusks of South Florida.” That was followed by “Shelling in the Philippines” by Doug Jeffrey. We then had the show awards given out and the end of the Silent auction.
That evening there was a banquet with a program “Living Shells” by Charles E. Rawlings, who also had his book for sale. As a table favor we each had a lovely poem at our place setting, and then the Raffle tickets were pulled.
A high point of the banquet was that Linda Sunderland and I both won a raffle prize. Linda won a huge Melo and I won a lovely diorama made by the late Bob Pierson. That was the end of a very busy Jamboree and an enjoyable reunion with many friends I don’t get to see enough.
I was sorry that not more Broward Shell Club members did not attend. I hope if there ever is another Jamboree, more of our members will attend.
Carole P. Marshall
Broward Shell Club 