2022 FOLDS OF HONOR PATRIOTS GALA
ASM’s model display at the 2022 Folds of Honor Patriots Gala went extremely well and was enjoyed by all the attendees. The event was held at the Embassy Suites in Albuquerque on August 20, 2022. The Folds of Honor (FoH) provides scholarships for children and spouses of America’s fallen and disabled Service members. The Gala is one of their primary fund-raising events with silent auction and old-fashioned live auctions during the dinner. ASM has provided built models for their auctions, and we had a 1/48 scale F-35A Lightning II built by Scott Jaworski in this year’s auction. Scott’s model was won with a bid of $60. This was our third model display in support of an FoH event.
The theme of ASM’s display was “Models of Aircraft, Ships and Military Vehicles Used by the U.S. Services.” We had 102 total models on four 6-foot long tables. This was a record number of models for a FoH display, as well as our three Air Force Anniversary Ball displays. It took us about an hour to get set up. We had approximately 25 tubs of models.
The display was set up chronologically beginning with the Korean War and Southeast Asia (Viet Nam) periods at the far-left end. The center section had models from the Gulf War and current time periods. On the right end we had a large section of helicopters and armor/military vehicle models. Ken Piniak’s large 1/16 scale M1A1 Abrams tank had a lot of lookers, especially when he rotated the tank’s turret and fired it’s cannon at the conclusion of the event.
The goals of our ASM model displays are to promote the hobby of scale modeling; make an outreach for new members; and to perform community service by supporting civic events. I think we met all those goals with this event. We did pass out a lot of ASM fliers, so perhaps we will get some new members. A big thank you to all the ASM members who provided models for the display: Victor Maestas, Steve Brodeur, Scott Jaworski, Mark Vaughn, Keith Liotta, Ken Piniak, Frank Randall, Brian Peck, and Mike and Matt Blohm. Thanks also to Frank Randall, Ken Piniak, and Matt and Mike Blohm for manning the tables.
