"Well we proved it, we absolutely proved it that it can be done. And that it will be done."

Turn at Lincoln Highway and 1st Avenue Photo James Pitcherella 

At the City of Coatesville Redevelopment Authority Meeting July 18, 2011

RDA Chairperson Joseph Disciullo, “Since Matt was so intimately involved with this, I’m going to let him discuss the recognition for the Celebrate Coatesville Day. The volunteers, he knows everyone’s name and so forth.”

RDA Vice Chairman Jack Burkholder, “Before he goes on, one of the main guys that needs recognition is Matt. Because he took over, we had a lot of people that helped but, Matt and Stacy were the driving forces along with the volunteers Corley and David. They got a lot done. They literally, they only had hours as opposed to having a year to plan something. It was literally hours, that’s all they had. And a lot of dedication, a lot of effort and covering a lot of bases; they were able to pull it off.

As a board member as a citizen of Coatesville I just want to say thank you to everybody that. And it put a good spin on Coatesville for a change… And Matt owns a lot of that credit.”

Harry Colon, “Second that.”

RDA Member Matt Baker, “Well first of all thank you. Second of all it wasn’t just me… David has to take a lot of the credit. He probably lost about 10 pounds handing out flyers the week before.

I want to thank the board but also thank David and Corley because without you, we wouldn’t have gotten…You guys were really the drivers. Because at the end it was putting the pieces together but you guys were the drivers and I also want to thank you very much.

Thanks to everyone; Thanks to the City, the Rotary obviously all the sponsors. The RDA to very much to Victory, they really put up with a lot of…give them a bottle of Aspirin to deal with us.

Rob and Stacy it’s beyond… they sat out in the middle of the field the day before the event without a hat when it was 100 degrees picking rocks out of the ground.

It was really, it was positive, it was nice. It was nice to see. I’ve lived here for four years and quite honestly I get really tired of hearing the same thing record of; O, It’s just Coatesville. Well we proved it, we absolutely proved it that it can be done. And that it will be done. And that we got a sponsor. And not just a local, but something that actually had a brand, name recognition to come here. And we hope that it’s; we hope that next year it’s even better.

The word from everyone that’s here but also for instance from Corley and her husband, they actually went out and talked to, got first hand information from the riders. And really, basically in business call it a post-mortem. We actually went out and tried to get that information. We got really good feedback about things that they liked and what they didn’t. But they were impressed because somebody listened and you know we’re trying to build on something.

This isn’t a one off. We want to make this an annual event; kind of the way Manayunk is back did back in the eighties with their race.

But that being said I wanted to say thank you. A lot of people did a lot of work. And to John and the team who cleaned incessantly before the event, thank you sir. Well you did. You did a lot of things that most people don’t want to do. I can only take credit for some of it…

There was a lot of people besides Victory Brewing… Jimmy D’Z was there as well…but also the Krapf Company they really went out of their way not just to provide the spots get the bus out and a lot of people weren’t there Mr. Krapf and his family did a great job and I just have to say thanks to them…”

COATESVILLE CLASSIC VIDEO

Video production by John Hutelmyer