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May, 2006

2100 Walnut Street

Kansas City, MO 64108

Local Chapter of MAFCA and MARC

NEWS

‘A’

LETTER

Heart of America Model A Ford Club

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Certificate of M erit” 2004

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B est N ewsletter

H onorable M ention” 2004

CELEBRATING THE SPIRIT

In 2008, my family will celebrate twenty years of involvement with the Model A hobby. When we purchased

our 1930 four-door sedan, the interior was filled with boxes of spare parts and several books. I began pouring

over those books and discovered there were several pictures of The Tweny Millionth Ford. At that time I had

no idea that eighteen years later, I would have the opportunity to see this car in person.

We are indeed honored that the Twenty Millionth Ford is coming to our June 3rd, Union Station Event. We

extend a special thanks to Jim Spawn for his involvement in bringing the car to Kansas City. I hope all of you

took the opportunity to read the wonderful historical article by Jim about the Twenty Millionth Ford. There is

nothing I can add to Jim’s historical reflections. However, I would like to add a few thoughts concerning our

celebration of the Twenty Millionth Ford.

To my way of thinking, the value of this car does not reside in the fact that it was the twenty millionth car to

roll off the assembly line. The twenty fifth millionth car to roll off the assembly line could just as easily have

been designated by Ford as the car to celebrate. So, I’d like to suggest the real celebration is not about the car;

it’s about the spirit of the people behind the car. It has often been said that Henry Ford put America on wheels.

He brought automotive transportation to the “common person”. The Twenty Millionth Ford is a celebration of

Henry Ford’s spirit and vision. The car is also a celebration of the spirit of dedication and devotion shown by

the Ford assembly line workers. It doesn’t matter how well a car is designed if it isn’t assembled with the spirit

of pride and craftsmanship. Sure, there is always the struggle between labor and management and the Ford

Motor Company was no exception. Through the good times and the tough times, many Ford workers did their

job with the spirit of pride and dedication. If this were not true, there would not be a Twenty Millionth Ford to

celebrate. Years later, Ford Motor Company would adopt a motto that reflected this spirit of pride and dedica-

tion by the workers that made the Twenty Millionth Ford possible. “At Ford Quality Is Job # 1.” The Twenty

Millionth Ford is also about celebrating the spirit to take risks in exploring technical improvements and bring-

ing these new innovations to the automotive marketplace. This was a hard lesson for Henry Ford to learn. Nev-

ertheless, he slowly changed his ways to embrace the spirit of incorporating technological improvements into

manufacturing Ford products.

I hope you are excited about seeing the Twenty Millionth Ford as it makes its second historical appearance in

Kansas City. When we celebrate this special vehicle, let us celebrate the spirit that made this vehicle possible.

Chris Launer