Earlier this week, when I suggested to Justin Lucas, who is organizing the 2020 Chattanooga Poker Run with fellow Tennesseans Chad Collier and Mark Godsey, that they were the Three Musketeers of go-fast boating events in the Volunteer State, he laughed.
“More like the Three Stooges,” he said.
Grassroots go-fast boating event organizers and their teams deserve recognition and gratitude. Photo from the 2018 Old Hickory Poker Run courtesy/copyright Pete Boden/Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
Lucas, not unlike his pals Collier and Godsey, has an engaging and self-deprecating sense of humor. But the truth is that without people like him and his friends—volunteer organizers who produce events because they love giving back as much as they love high-performance powerboating—the event world would be limited to for-profit happenings produced by professional organizers.
Don’t misunderstand—like most small business owners, I am unapologetically for-profit. I tip my hat to the likes of Stu Jones of the Florida Powerboat Club and Christina Nichols of Desert Storm, and wish nothing but success for Anthony Scioli of Elite Poker Runs LLC. Organizing and producing boating events is not an easy business and it is far from the cash cow it appears to be from the outside looking in. There’s nothing wrong with trying to make a living for what you do well.
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