Happy St Patrick’s Day! Well, so much for the winter that wasn’t. The upside is we are able to get our cars out and drive them to events and gatherings more often.
There are a few fun events coming up in the next couple of months where many of us can get together and catch-up, including the Festival of the Whales in Dana Point, Queens English at Woodley Park, Rolling British Car Day, and the Seal Beach car show. We usually have great turnouts for these, so get your cars ready to go.
On a sad note. As many of you have heard, we lost a long- time Healey member, John Hedblom, a couple of weeks back.
John has been in declining health and is at peace now. His wife Darryl is making plans for his celebration of life later this spring, so we will keep you informed. John was a longtime Healey guy who picked up his Hirst Healey in 1958, a Sprite, followed by a second one in 1960. He also picked- up a 55 RHD BN-1 in 2010. One of his favorite things to do was TSD rallies. Please join me in keeping John, Darryl and their family in your thoughts and prayers, John will be missed by many of us.
Update on the tragic LA fires. Since my last update, we found out that another member lost not only their home but their 55 BN-1. John and Lori Kinney lost their home in the Mountain Fire in November. This brings the Hire season total to sadly three members who lost their homes and two who lost garages, one with irreplaceable motorcycles and another that lost two Jags and two 50’s vintage cars that had been in his family since new. We also had more members who had to mandatorily evacuate. But through this, our family only lost one Healey. I have heard that those affected have had good luck with their insurance companies and are on the road to recovery. The amazing part is how many in our Healey family stepped up as a community letting those who had to evacuate stay with them or help relocate things. In addition, there has been a lot of offers to help and through our Wildfire 2025 donations, we collected over $6,800 to help our members through these challenging times. We have an AMAZING Healey community and family and I want to thank you all.
CHW 2025- As you should have seen, registration for CHW 2025 is now open. CHW 2025 will be held in Yosemite National Park in October during what should be peak fall colors in the Sierras. To date, we have over 25 registrations and more signing up. I hope you can join us for another great CHW. You just cannot beat the natural beauty of Yosemite and especially in the fall. Also, as a reminder for those interested, David Nock from the Golden Gate AHC is setting up a fall colors tour just before CHW2025. David’s tour will pass through some of the gold rush back roads and Sierra passes looking for the perfect fall scenery. The plan is for CHW 2025 to be the second week of October 2025. I hope to see you there.
75th Anniversary International Healey Meet- The planning for the 75th International Healey Meet continues. We have finalized the costs and have rolled out the notification to our international community. We plan to open registration soon for those in North Americia, so keep a look-out for the notification. The plan is for the meet to be held in Lake Tahoe in June of 2027 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Healey Marque.
New members- Please join me in welcoming three new members- Robert Blattenberg, Kate Brown, and Melissa Coyner. Robert is from Laguna Hills and has a 66 BJ8 MkIII. Kate hails from Huntington Beach and has a 61 AN-5 MkI, and Melissia is from Solvang and has a 54 BN-1, which she is considering selling. Welcome to our new members.
If you are in the market to buy or sell your Healey, there has been a change to the national club’s marketplace. The for-sale section has been moved from the magazine to the digital on-line section only.
As always, please keep up the great support for the local drives and events and check our website for upcoming events. Our rides bring a lot of joy to so many people. Also, when considering having work done on your cars, please consider our sponsors.
And again, thank you to all of our members that have stepped-up to help our friends and family through the LA Hires.