THE BOTTLE CHASEVice President’s Report Hi Everyone, January has been one of those months where you try to catch up on everything you had forgotten to do last year, namely getting ready for taxes. Behold the taxman cometh. I’ve been trying to get all my receipts in order. I said last year at this time I would do a better job of keeping my records in order. Not!!! It didn’t happen. Now I have something to look forward to during the year: Trying to do a better job of keeping records. It really seems kind of the same old thing. Of course, I can always dust my bottles if I run out of things to do. By the time you read this, several shows may be over. Tex-Fest is February 7-9, Great Get Together is February 13-16 and Ohio Winterfest is February 19-22, Springtime in Atlanta is April 16-19 and I understand Springfling in Kansas City is the following weekend but I don’t have confirmation at this time. Try to get out and support the ones close to you. Carole & I are heading to California to visit and then to the Great Get Together. Always looking for one of those deals on a bottle I don’t have. Speaking of bottles, here are the ones I know of since the last newsletter: PLAN NOW to be at SPRINGTIME IN ATLANTA. As the Springtime Chairpersons, we hope that all of you already have April 16 - 19, 2003 marked on your calendars because we’re planning to provide a FUN schedule of events that you won’t want to miss. The overall Theme for Springtime 2003 is “Coca-Cola Through the Years.” Each of the special events such as the Opening Party, Lunch and Banquet will have a separate Coca-Cola sub-theme. SPECIAL EVENTS **Our Wednesday Night Opening Party is GUARANTEED to be a big hit, as Bax and Velvet Walker have agreed to provide the “SHOW BUSINESS” know-how to get Springtime off to a great start. Lots of surprises for sure with these two “Stars” leading our way DURING our “Coca-Cola and Sports” party. **At the Thursday Lunch, you may be someone selected to play one of our favorite TV Game Shows, so make plans to be there to see who can win a cool Coke prize. And, brush up on your “Hundred and Seven Years of Coca-Cola” trivia just in case you have a chance to play. Richard and Kelly Mix will be hosts for this “don’t miss” event. **The Saturday Evening Banquet will focus on “Coca-Cola and the Movies,” giving us all a chance to reminisce a bit about the “good old days” of movie making and the stars that kept us going to the theaters. Bring a pencil because there just might be a Test! Our thanks go to Ted Ryan of the Archives for the work he is doing to ensure we have a great program. MAJOR COCA-COLA BOTTLE DEALERS/COLLECTORS AT SPRINGTIME Most of the people whom you would consider to be major players in the area of Coca-Cola bottle collecting are planning to be at Springtime. If you can’t find that special Coke bottle at Springtime, I would be surprised. So do your ONE-STOP shopping at Springtime and have FUN at the same time. ADVANCED COMMITMENTS TO THE AUCTIONS We want to feature a number of special Coke Collectibles that will be in either the Silent or Regular Auctions and place their pictures on the Atlanta Chapter Web Site - to create an excitement about what Coke Goodies can be found right here at Springtime. If you have one or MORE special items (valued at above $200.00) that you would commit to either auction, please contact us at GACOKE@aol.com or call us at 770-458-5670. We will also use the “reserve” bid feature as we did in 2002 - the same that National used in Palm Springs. You will be able to place multiple items in the auctions if your items are included in this program. The Registration form for Springtime in Atlanta can be found in the Coca-Cola Club Newsletter, but if you want to get one electronically, just send us an e-mail. Happy Bottle Collecting! John & Karleen Buchholz 
Al Rhyne was a franchised Coca-Cola distributor for over 30 years. He won lots of contests over the years and bought other distributor’s collections and wound up with a tremendous inventory of over 4,000 items. Many of the duplicates are sold on Ebay and this has become a pastime for Barbara. She loves emailing with customers from all over the world. Barbara and Al travel to most of the National Conventions. Just this past July they traveled over 10,000 miles in search of Coke memorabilia. They attended the Convention in Palm Springs, California. In September, they traveled to the Septemberfest in E-Town, Kentucky. In October they traveled to New Jersey for the Altantique Collectibles show in Atlantic City…then on to New York. They found lots of great items along the way as well! October 15, 2002 - Diet Vanilla Coke is introduced in the U.S. and Canada, as a result of consumer requests following the introduction of Vanilla Coke. October 2002 - KO is selected to be featured in a postage stamp series in Singapore titled, “Singapore, A Global City,” Singapore’s limited edition collectors’ stamp series includes a total of six stamps and 15 souvenir sheets. In conjunction with the stamp release, Coca-Cola Singapore invites consumers to take part in a Design-a-Stamp contest on its Web site. October 28, 2002 - Coca-Cola introduces its new 390 mL bottle in Singapore; the smaller-sized bottle, for the hip and mobile generation, is handy and can be used with accessories such as bottle straps. New, funky shrink wrap packaging with a musical theme is available for this fun pack. October 31, 2002 - For the first time, one of KO’s products - KMX - is being offered for sale over the internet at www.kmxusa.com/buykmx. The energy drink is available on the Web in 12- and 24-packs, but is sold only in single servings in convenience and grocery stores. October 31, 2002 - Coca-Cola France creates the world’s first glow-in-the-dark Coca-Cola bottle sleeve. Launched for a limited period at a party at the Halloween 4 concert (an annual pop music event sponsored by Coca-Cola France) in Paris, the new packaging features a typical bottle cap image, decorated with ice cubes to form the shape of a pumpkin. Thanks to the use of special ink, the sleeve glows in the dark with a ghostly effect. November 2002 - The Coca-Cola Company launches Dasani NutriWater, a purified flavored water that contains nutrients, in three U.S. cities - New York City, Charleston, S.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. The new beverage will be available in four flavors, Mandarin Orange, Lemon Tangerine, Pear Cucumber, and Wild Berry. November 19, 2002 - The Coca-Cola Company renews its sponsorship of Special Olympics Inc. through 2005; the partnership covers the next two summer and winter Special Olympics World Games. The Coca-Cola Company and Special Olympics will develop joint cause-related marketing activities to raise awareness and funds for the organization. The Coca-Cola Company has been affiliated with Special Olympics since the group’s founding year, 1968, and was the movement’s first corporate sponsor. December 11, 2002 - Steven J. Heyer is elected president and chief operating officer of The Coca-Cola Company. Wow…as you read this, you are reading the Bottle Chase News issue 1, 2003. Starting the Bottle Chapter was a great idea. It turned out very successful. In less than a year the Chapter has 375 members including international members from Australia, Belgium, France, Norway and Spain…a great collector’s family. I’m convinced that like me, all members are enthusiastic about this idea. I would like to sincerely thank Joe, the whole Board and everyone who helped to make this Chapter such a success. Keep up the good work. Secondly, I hope everyone survived the holidays and had a warm and wonderful holiday season. Time is going fast, but at this time I also would like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a year full of happiness and a great collecting year. Last year was a very good year…3 new bottles were released in Belgium!!! (Remember the first bottle ever released in Belgium dates back to 1954, a second one came out during the summer of 1999.) After the beautiful “Chill” series (4 bottles) the Michael Young (October 2002) came out. In November 2002 the “I Love Techno” bottle was released. If you don’t have any of those, keep searching, all those bottles are “plastic wrapped,” limited and a very nice add-on to your shelves. It’s really an honor being one of the Belgian correspondents (+Johann Van Mierlo, Eric Persyn) and I hope to keep you all posted about new bottles in our area in the future). I’m really looking forward to the Bottle Chase (like all of you)…it’s a function to inform the whole Coke family. The updated commemorative bottle lists (from our Chapter President) gives us an idea about new released bottles in the USA. Relax & Enjoy, Sigrid Persyn 
January Birthday Wishes To: January Anniversaries: Oops!!! We inadvertently missed the following: Our chapter members are all interested in your collections and your favorite bottles. Please submit your articles, pictures and notes of interest to me via email at ahf686@aol.com.
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