Comments from yesterday's entrants

THANK YOU for all your entries to my 24 hour give-away yesterday! The offer has now ended. Final results and tallies are being completed and double-checked. But while we do so, here, in no particular order, is a sampling of comments several vents included with their entries.
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From Budi HaHa (Indonesia): I just want you know that I'm still doing ventriloquism especially for church and school shows. Once (in) a while I give training for young people about puppetry and ventriloquism too. So hopefully ventriloquism is more popular in Indonesia. And I'm not sure how many other Indonesian took Maher Course until now, but I still tell anyone, who ask me how to learn ventriloquism, to get Maher Course as their best effort.
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From Franna Barger: It's been a long time since our last communication with you. Our daughter bought a dummy figure from you back when she was just a teen about 16 years ago. With the changes of hair color, style, when she got DARLENE people thought it was custom made to look like her. She has gone far since then. Christine has been living in L.A. for about 6 years after graduating from Ball State. She has made entertainment her life. She has done serious acting and ventriloquism. Keeps herself very busy. I have the copy of the your newsletter she was in and look at it often remembering back then . How how life does change over years. PS. Darlene is still alive :) and looks the same!
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From Canon John Jordan: "Thank you" for more than 40 years of giving of your time and talents not just to earn a living, but also to use your God-given talents and abilities in service to your fellow man. Your figure-making and repairing provide the tools, and the Maher Course provides the instructions and guidance to ventriloquists the world over. In a very real sense, your "daily blog" is an on-going source of knowledge and encouragement to the hundreds who turn to it daily for inspiration and information. That as a Christian, you encourage others to reach out with the help of the ventriloquist's art to bring others to our Lord, is a very real Ministry that you offer to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. This comes with a prayer that you will be spared and encouraged to continue this Ministry for many more years to come.
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From Ken Howell: Thanks again for all you have done in support of the vent community all these years. Also thank you for taking on my project this past year. (You agreed to complete the figure that I had started 20 years ago) It will always be a cherished possession. Have a great year.
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From Matt Sponaugle: Thanks so much for your blog. I've learned so much over the years and it's been a wonderful way to keep in touch with the vent community past and present.
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From Evelyn Hickam: Happy New Year, and thank you for being so generous! However, I do think you could be just a little more giving and include in this offer an autographed picture of Clinton and Adelia Detweiler since, in everybody's book, they rank right up there with all these greats you have mentioned. Certainly you have been so very helpful to all of us over the years -- and you continue to be! Your Blog is an interesting and enjoyable way to keep in touch with the vent world. Thank you!
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From NJay: It is with utmost respect I send you this e mail to inform you of my visit to your blog today, not as much for the gift, but for the knowledge he gains by visiting. I would like to in earnest state a very large thank you for the information I have gained from your blog. I am also a graduate of your Maher Basic Course and I thank you for that. I am still looking at the Course on a daily basis - you have so much information crammed into so few pages, it's amazing. Last, but not least, I want to wish the great Lester a happy 129th birthday...he will live on forever in all the minds of the students of ventriloquism.
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From Allen Fuller: I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed reading the NewsyVent from 1988. It brought back memories of when I joined N.A.A.V. as a teenager after my parents purchased a Knee-Pal from Maher in 1983. I recall eagerly reading all the articles in each NewsyVent that I received. Thanks again for your continued support and encouragement to me and to the entire ventriloquist community.
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From Joyce Carroll: Thank you for your great service over the years. I have been a vent for over 35 years! I am still telling folks how it has made all the difference in my life ( in fact, may have saved it, but that's a long story). I have some precious stories about children who have touched my life in an in-measurable way. Some of the jokes that I have acquired from your dialogue books are still some of my best, and friends tell me that no matter how many times they've heard a few of them, it still makes them laugh. Thanks for laughs.
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From Wes Green: Where do you come up with such treasures? When you share these artifacts, you perpetuate ventriloquism and immortalize a craft worthy of honor. Thanks for keeping the voice alive, even if the lips are still. If any should find their way into an envelope addressed to Wes Green, just know that it will not stay in the mailbox long, but will join other treasures destined for "Inspiration Alley" on the way to a future "Great Lester". God bless you with all that you need to be all that He needs you to be.
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From Melissa Nichols: I just wanted to drop a line and share my enthusiasm and love for vent history. I am by nature a lover of all things historic, and have spent many years in private scholarship reading about various and sundry dates in history. At one time I was pursuing a degree in history, but over time I was taken down various other paths instead. I do FX work and Entertainment with my brother and business partner Phil Nichols. From the time we were children we've loved vent. Now we are venturing out into the vent world in all seriousness and it is an exciting journey. I was thrilled about your Great Lester give away today. I've been collecting old digital images of Vents from the 19th century and I wish to become a serious student of vent history.
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From Martin Gutzmer: I still have my "mouth coin purse" from my Maher course years ago. I do not know if I ever told you that I got a job as a pastor over 20 years ago because of my mouth coin purse. When our United Methodist Bishop read my resume' in front of the Central Illinois Conference Cabinet - and said - "I notice you are a ventriloquist, do some for us", - I dumped the contents out of my coin purse, and "Percy" the coin purse talked for a couple of minutes, and here were grown men laughing themselves silly. The bishop said - "Well, that's GREAT ', -turned to his secretary and said, "get Roy (my old bishop's first name) on the phone, and tell him we'll take Martin!" Then turned to me with these words, "Welcome to the Conference Son - How DO you do that?"
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