Vintage Mandolin to be Auctioned

DGS President Van Wagner is donating one of his mandolins for the Charity Auction to help celebrate our 75th Year.

The mandolin was made in 1941, most likely by Kay. It has been used by Van Wagner himself for many performances including a live show with the Hard Coal Boys At Kenny's Castaways in Greenwich Village in January 2004. The photo below was taken after the concert on a NYC subway singing a Woody Guthrie song. How many mandolins can say that?

Since 1967, Kenny's Castaways has been the house that Rock built. Bruce Springsteen played his very first New York gig here. The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, Aerosmith, Rod Stewart and the Ramones are all part of Kenny's history. This Mandolin played a 3 set concert on this same stage.

DGS on the World Wide Web

In addition to this blog, the Danville German Society has

a website (http://www.danvillegerman.com)

a Facebook page

and an email address.

For now, the blog is the best place to get up-to-date information about the DGS and the Elk Toss.

Top Ten Reasons to Come to the Elk Toss - No. 9

And the Number 9 reason to come to the Elk Toss is...

...Lederhosen and Dirndls.

Other than Oktoberfest celebrations and Sound of Music reenactments, when else do you get to bust out your Lederhosen or Dirndl? So, be a proud Danville German, and wear your traditional garb.

Is that a Groundhog-Human Hybrid wearing Lederhosen?

Top Ten Reasons to Come to the Elk Toss - No. 10

We start our countdown with Reason Number 10 to Come to the Elk Toss, and it is...

...for the food.

Starting early in the morning with the ScrappleFest at Pappas Restaurant, we then continue to the Jerseytown Burger Eat-Off at the Jerseytown Tavern, and that's all before noon. Then there's pot-luck-style food at the Wagner Farm and tasty grub at the various restaurants in downtown Danville in the evening.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more reasons to attend the Elk Toss.

Unidentified Jerseytown Burger Eater

Top Ten Reasons to Come to the Elk Toss (Coming Soon)

There are just over ten weeks until the Elk Toss (February 26, 2011, if you didn't know already), and we have decided to do something special for our 75th Year. We will be doing a ten week countdown of the Top Ten Reasons to Come to the Elk Toss. Number 10 will be revealed in a day or two, and we plan on posting one reason each week until we have a week to go. Hopefully our math is correct.

2011 Elk Toss Date Set

The 75th Annual Danville German Society Elk Toss, Winter Festival, and Charity Auction is scheduled for February 26, 2011. As always, the events will be held in and around Danville. More information will be posted here on the DGS Blog as we work out the details.

DGS News - September Update

Not much to report about the Danville German Society right now, although we do have two new members: Identical twins Ian Josef Shellenberger and Logan James Shellenberger were born on September 15. We hope that they begin competing in the Children's Elk Toss in a few years.

The 75th Annual Elk Toss, Charity Auction, and Winter Festival will be held sometime in February. More details will be coming later this year.

This doesn't have anything to do with the new members or really much about the DGS, but we do have an interesting photo of our President, Van Wagner...

Shikellamy German Society - GERMANFEST 2010

Our friends (or is it enemies?) at the Shikellamy German Society have announced the details for GERMANFEST 2010...


Sat July 31st at HOOKIES PICNIC GROVE - Northumberland, PA

12:00 Start time!
1:00 Events begin
3:00ish Auction for House of Hope
Ends at ????

-- will again have several contests and the horse racing table. Grove has several covered picinic/table areas!

Shikellamy German Society in our 74th year! Wow...how time flies! We are again raising money for House of Hope of Danville. Bring your steins, viking helmets (optional – but you’ll look silly without one), some type of food to share (only if you want) and some type of beverage (if you want) and of course a donation for the auction (so clean out that closet). Bring cash to purchase items at auction and participate to help raise money for the House of Hope !

Fest begins at noon...games/events begin at 1:00...auction sometime before dark.

Join us for a VERY fun day!!!!!!!!!!

2010 Charity Totals

We're still working on getting things organized, but we should be getting donations to charities very soon. We had some money left in our account from previous years, so we were able to donate a total of $2500 this year. The following charities will receive the following amounts:

Gatehouse Shelter, Danville - $500
Daily Item Needy Family Fund, Sunbury, Northumberland, Danville area - $500
Montour County Summer Concert Series, Danville - $200
Deb's House, Lancaster - $500
Mount Nittany Conservancy, Centre County - $400
Centre Grounds, Centre County - $400

Thanks to everyone who participated or donated to the 2010 Elk Toss and Charity Auction. We could not have raised so much money without you. We hope that you had a good time and we hope to see  you again next year for our 75th year.

Magic Fred

For those who made it to the Pub II later in the evening after the Elk Toss, you may have had the chance to witness Fred Iobst performing magic at a table towards the back of the bar. Fred has been showing up to perform his magic after the Elk Toss for nearly 75 years now (we believe he missed a few years early on).

The Danville German Society wouldn't be what it is without Fred, and we thank him for that.

Elk Toss Newspaper Article

The Elk Toss was featured in a Sunbury Daily Item newspaper article.

We are not sure how long they will keep the story on the Daily Item website, so you can also view a pdf of the article on the DGS Website.

2010 Officer Elections

Immediately following the Scrap Iron Toss, the DGS Officers held a top secret meeting in the Franz Klingermann Memorial Outhouse* for the 2010 election of officers. All officers were reelected and a few new positions were created. The current DGS officers are...

• Presidents - Karl Shellenberger and Van Wagner
• Secretary - Pamela Shellenbeger
• Past Secretary - Chad McKonly
• Treasurer - Tamara Wagner
• Faculty Advisor - Francy Moyer
• Elk Handler - Franz Klingermann
• Magician - Fred Iobst
• Commercial Donations Liaison** and State College Chapter President - Aaron Jensen
• Musical Coordinator and Lancaster Chapter President- Joe McMonagle
• Auctioneer - Todd Summers
• Assistant Auctioneer and Stakeholder*** - Gunter Canterbury
• Children's Council - Luke and Calvin Wagner, Brooke Shellenberger

*Technically, the meeting was in a secret chamber underneath the Franz Klingermann Memorial Outhouse.
**Formerly Goutweed Control Technician
***Stakeholder is literally the guy who holds the tent stakes that are used to measure the Elk Toss.

Elk Toss Thanks

The 75th Annual Elk Toss, Charity Auction, and Winter Festival would not have been a success without the help and generosity of so many people. Hopefully this list is complete - please email us if we forgot someone.

Many thanks goes out to...

Our guest German Societies and Chapters:

• The Shikellamy German Society (in their 74th year)
• The Shamokin German Society (in their 60th year)
• The DGS State College Chapter
• The DGS Lancaster Chapter

Gunter Canterbury for Elk Toss measuring and auctioneering.

Franz Klingermann for auctioneering and other important tasks

Espo for auctioneering.

Aaron Jensen for collecting and counting money, assistance with events, and collecting commercial donations.

Jack Curry for handing out awards for the Children's Elk Toss, and Lewisburg HS faculty for supplying those awards.

Francy Moyer for faithfully serving as our Faculty Advisor.

Everyone for bringing auction items and buying auction items and taking those items with them when they left.

Everyone for politely dealing with the parking situation at the Wagner Farm.

Everyone for bringing pot luck food.

Dave McGaffin of Yards Brewing Company for providing kegs of beer.

Joe McMonagle (formerly of Stoudt's Brewing Company) for obtaining a keg of beer from Stoudt's.

Zeno's Pub for donating t-shirts for the auction.

Elk Creek Cafe and Aleworks for donating a growler refill to the auction.

Team Blue Hand Carwash for donating a gift certificate.

Kris Kehr and the Stone Poets for rocking the Pub II.

Fred Iobst for performing his magic at the Pub II.

The chickens and peacock for being birds.

And most importantly.... the Wagner family for hosting the Elk Toss, providing supplies and an outhouse, keeping an extra eye on children, attempting to save Bill Brasky's life, etc.

Bill Brasky and the Peacock

First the first time in the 75 year history of the Elk Toss, we appear to have a death. All reports indicate Bill Brasky died at some point before or during the Elk Toss. We thought that he looked a little thin. We hope to have more information coming soon.

Would the person or people who took the peacock please return it?

2010 Elk Toss Results

We had another successful Elk Toss, Charity Auction, and Winter Festival. This year was extra special since it was our 75th year.

We raised over $2,400 which will be donated to local charities. There were a few people planning to mail additional donations, so we will post the final total once all the donations are collected.

Here's a quick recap of the event results. More information will follow in the next few days.

Jerseytown Burger Eat-Off
1st - Megan Freedman - 4:00 (first female champion)
2nd- Tait Brotman - 4:24

Elk Bugling
1st - John Zerbe
2nd - Franz Klingermann

Scrap Iron Toss
1st - Steve Lewis
2nd - James Spayd

Beard Competition
1st - Plastic Skeleton Representing Bill Brasky
2nd  1st - Karl Shellenberger
(1st awarded to the 2nd place finisher per DGS Bylaw 402.G.7.f - "Entrant must be alive at the time of competition, subject to judgment of officials.")

Salad Toss
1st - Angela Persing and Kelley Geurin (way to toss that salad, ladies)

Elk Toss
1st - Patrick - 47'3"
2nd - Chris - 45'7"
3rd (tie) - Franz Klingermann and Mike Wilkinson - 45'1"
5th - Van Wagner - 42'8"
6th - John Wadeck

If you know last names of event winners, please email them to us.

If you have any photos that you feel are worthy of being on our website, email them to us.

Elk Toss Homework

We request that you learn the lyrics to the chorus of the following song:

Katy Klutz
words and music by Professor Schnitzel

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Spiel.
When I was just a boy of twelve,
Not dry behind the ear yet,
I met a girl named Katy Klutz,
As shy as any violet.

Then one day I stole a kiss.
She didn't know what she was missing.
Now you know what schmutzing is.
Well, schmutzing's only kissing.

Chorus:
Ay, ay, ay...how she could schmutz.
Ay, ay, ay, that Katy Klutz,
Ay, ay, ay...how she could schmutz...
There never was a schmutzing girl like that there Katy Klutz.
 
She was my hon', my sugar bun.
She was my one desire.
I schmutzed her and she schmutzed me.
Till we set all the home on fire.
 
Chorus:
Ay, ay, ay...how she could schmutz.
Ay, ay, ay, that Katy Klutz,
Ay, ay, ay...how she could schmutz...
There never was a schmutzing girl like that there Katy Klutz.
 
Her hair was gold, her lips were red.
She had a winning way.
The way she scmutzed me,
I'll remember till my dying day.
 
Chorus:
Ay, ay, ay...how she could schmutz.
Ay, ay, ay, that Katy Klutz,
Ay, ay, ay...how she could schmutz...
You never saw a schmutzing girl like that there Katy Klutz.
There never was a schmutzing girl like Katy Klutz.

Final Elk Toss Reminders

Here are the final reminders and other important information for the Elk Toss. Hopefully, this post will include everything you will need to know about attending the Elk Toss.

We will attempt to stick to the schedule as closely as possible. Feel free to meet up with us at any of the locations.

Be Prepared:

1. Bring items to auction and cash/checks to buy things in the auction.
2. Bring Non-Perishable Food Items to donate to the Food Bank.
3. Bring a Drinking Vessel.
4. Wear Lederhosen or a Dirndl, and/or wear warm clothes since we will be outside much of the day.
5. Bring Pot-Luck Food to share at the Wagner Farm.
6. Please, do not bring your dog to the Elk Toss. The Wagners have chickens and a peacock, and they have had too many issues with dogs and their birds.
7. Organize a carpool.
8. If you haven't done so already, reserve a room at the Pine Barn Inn if you want to spend the night in Danville.
9. Check out this blog post about Driveway Conditions at the Wagner Farm.
10. Prepare to have fun while supporting some great charities.

Important Links:

2010 Elk Toss Schedule (pdf)
Google Map of Locations
Danville Weather
Downtown Danville Map (pdf)
2010 Elk Tossing Information

Driveway Conditions at the Wagner Farm

Judging from the quality and frequency of his emails, Van is really excited about the Elk Toss this year. Here's another great one, which will also help you in getting to the top of the driveway at the Wagner Farm:

"My front wheel drive Saturn has been fine...but people CAN NOT STOP HALFWAY UP TO SMELL THE ROSES AND THEN TRY TO GO AGAIN. My driveway is like a marriage, you have to commit. Like a marriage, there is ice, there are ditches, it is wet is places, you'll have arguments about drinking, you have push on because at the end is a glorious mountain top with space and sunshine."

What he is trying to say is that there is some snow and ice on the driveway and it is uphill, although it has been improving over the past few days without new snow. 4WD vehicles will help, but the key is to maintain a steady pace on the hill. Do not be scared. The driveway should be in much better conditions than the past few years.

Oh, and when you get to the top of the hill, parking is limited, so try to carpool as much as possible.

This message was brought to you by the DGS Traffic and Road Conditions Department.

Exiting Information from Van

Once again, more interesting information from Van:

"Great news! I got a phone call after 3am last night from biologist Gary Clemson in Clinton County. We have a live capture! They snared a nuisance elk near the Crossforks Tavern using a bait and switch trap. I have fast-tracked all paperwork for the Commonwealth, and this elk is currently being transported to a highway shipment crate to be delivered Saturday at 3pm! Can you believe it? Finally, a live elk. First time since 1988. I am worried about the size. Let's just say it's a biggin'."

Fuzzy Memories from Van Wagner

Sometimes it is fun to copy and post an email from Van, and this is one of those times. Please do not ask what the email means.

One time someone came to the elk toss in a wheelchair and asked for special considerations due to the handicap. Next thing I know, Bill Brasky comes out of the woods spouting profanities about “free handouts for cripples” and picked up the elk in one arm and the wheelchair in the other. After all the smoke had cleared, this person not only tied Franz Klingerman but he walked perfectly until the day he died. Scroll down to see both pictures.

Return Your Trophies

We request that the winners of events last year please return the trophies so that they can be awarded to the winners this year. Based on our records, these people currently hold trophies:

Elk Toss: Chaz Wall

Jerseytown Burger Eat-Off: No Trophy

Elk Bugling: Gunter Canterbury

Scrap Iron Toss: Pam Shellenberger

Dog Sled Race: Wrench Ruggairo (or whatever his real name is)

Salad Toss: Joe McMonagle and Gina Arnone

Beard Competition: No Trophy

Ice Roping: Jean Fox

More Elk Toss Reminders

To add to the information provided in emails last night, we wanted to provide more reminders for the upcoming 75th Annual Elk Toss, Charity Auction, and Winter Festival to be held this Saturday February 20.

Things to Bring:

1. Items to auction and cash/checks to buy things in the auction.
2. Non-Perishable Food Items to donate to the Food Bank.
3. Drinking Vessel.
4. Lederhosen or a Dirndl.
5. Pot-luck food to share at the Wagner Farm.

Make sure you check other DGS Blog posts for more information including maps, schedules, and other interesting DGS tidbits.

As of today, our official DGS Meteorologist (aka the National Weather Service) is calling for a partly sunny day on Saturday with a high temperature of around 36 °F. No significant snow is forecast between now and Saturday. Sounds like perfect conditions for an Elk Toss.

There were reports of a snow covered driveway at the Wagner Farm. We will provide additional information on the driveway and parking conditions as that information becomes available.

Elk Toss Map

Check out the Google Map of the various locations we will be visiting during the day:

View Elk Toss Locations in a larger map

Report from the Wagner Farm

A few inches of snow are expected tonight, but not much else is forecast until after the Elk Toss. The driveway is reportedly still snow covered and 4WD vehicles will likely be the recommendation, unless we get a lot of melting later this week. Van Wagner had this to say about the conditions in the barn:

"Dude, people are already showing up. There are like 14 people already standing in my barn. I even thought I heard one of them yelling out bids. What was he bidding on? The auction didn’t even start. I could even see a fresh set a footprints in the snow that lead from the barn to the outhouse. Days."

Help the DGS Go Green

A few ways that you can help us lower the environmental impact of the Elk Toss...

1. Carpool as much as possible. This will also help with the problem of limited parking at some locations that we will visit.
2. Bring your own drinking vessel.
3. Walk downtown from the Pine Barn for the Tour of Danville.
4. Donate lots of money, since we will supporting at least one environmental organization this year.
5. Marvel at the solar panels which are being installed on the barn at the Wagner Farm.
6. Save water by using the Franz Klingermann Memorial Outhouse (equipped with an ultra-low flow toilet).

This message brought to you by the Green Team.

History of the DGS on the Web

Our new website got us thinking about the several websites we have had over the years, so here's a brief rundown of the history of the DGS on the web, not that anyone really cares about it all that much...

http://danville.hypermart.net (11/1999 - 2/2004) - A free website that kept getting more and more popup and banner ads, and then they decided right before the 2004 Elk Toss to cancel our site unless we started paying. Coupled with poor customer service, we moved on to...

http://www.geocities.com/danvillegerman (2/2004 - 2/2007) - Another free website that kept increasing the number of ads, so we moved on to...

http://danvillegerman.googlepages.com (2/2007-1/2010) - Once again, a free website, but this one did not have ads. It was easy to use, but they decided to cancel Page Creator and move our website to Google Sites (http://sites.google.com/site/danvillegerman/) sometime in 2009. The new service took away a lot of the functions of the old service, so we finally broke down and moved our website to...

http://www.danvillegerman.com/ (1/2010 - ?) - We're paying for this site, but we own the domain name and we have not yet had any of the problems we had with previous web hosts. We are using http://www.godaddy.com/ to host the site, which has been working out pretty well so far in terms of customer service and ease of use. Hopefully that continues.

New DGS Website

We finally got around to creating a new website for the Danville German Society.

Go ahead, check it out...

www.danvillegerman.com

We're still working on updating some old links from our former website. Most of the site should be functional already other than a few bad links.

Updated Charity List

We've added another charity recipient to the list below. This probably will be the final list, unless something comes up before the Elk Toss.

Gatehouse Shelter, Danville
Daily Item Needy Family Fund, Sunbury, Northumberland, Danville area
Montour County Summer Concert Series, Danville
Deb's House, Lancaster
Mount Nittany Conservancy, Centre County
Centre Grounds, Centre County

We will be again collecting non-perishable food to donate to the Danville-Riverside Food Bank, so make sure you bring cans and boxes of food. They will also be happy to receive grocery store gift cards (Weis and Giant have stores in the Danville area).

Charity Auction Information

The largest percentage of money raised each year comes from our Charity Auction, but it needs your help to maintain that success. If you have not attended the Elk Toss before, you should know that the auction works by having you bring items to donate to be auctioned. The problem in previous years is that some people bring stuff to auction which nobody else would actually want to buy. If we can get more quality items and less junk, we can raise more money with a shorter auction. If you have a particularly good item, email us, and maybe we will add it to the silent auction items.

Some of the items that have worked well in previous auctions include:

1. Adult Beverages - particularly homemade, homebrewed, or rare beverages
2. Gift Certificates and Merchandise from businesses in Danville, State College, or Lancaster
3. Quality Artwork
4. Clothing
5. Musical Recordings - particularly bootlegs or other rare collections
6. Memorabilia - sports, music, etc

Bring along any Christmas gifts that you know you will never use or wear, or the item cannot be returned to the store. If you think that someone else might like it, bring it along.

Also, do not bring any illegal or dangerous items to the auction. If you are not sure whether something is illegal, feel free to email us.

We just want to remind you to begin gathering auction items early, so that you have time to collect the good stuff.

Things Not to Bring to the Elk Toss

Don't bring these things:

1. Weapons of Mass Destruction.
2. Investigative Journalists.
3. Dogs*.

*We do have a Sled Dog race (time and weather permitting), but it is a human pulling human race. No dogs are actually involved. The Wagners have lost several of their chickens to dogs, and they don't want to lose any more. So, please leave your dogs at home.

Memories of Past Elk Tosses

This video shows how not to toss the Elk.

Tips for Elk Toss Virgins

For many people, this will be their first time attending the Elk Toss, Charity Auction, and Winter Festival. To make your experience as enjoyable as possible, we have compiled the following tips, reminders, and suggestions on what to bring with you:

1. The event benefits charities and your generosity is greatly appreciated. Please bring cash and/or checks to pay for events and the auction.
   
2. The charity auction is only as good as the items that you donate to the auction. We appreciate your donations but also like donations solicited from restaurants, artists, businesses, family, etc.
   
3. We will once again be collecting non-perishable food items to donate to the Danville-Riverside Food Bank. Please bring canned goods and other non-perishable items to donate.
4. Wear Lederhosen or a Dirndl.
5. Bring pot luck food to share at the Wagner Farm. Also, bring your own drinking vessel to cut down on the number of cups required.
6. Plan to carpool as much as possible. We will travel from Danville to Jerseytown to the Wagner Farm and then back to Danville. The only place with a lot of parking is at the Pine Barn Inn in Danville.
7. Speaking of the Pine Barn Inn, we recommend reserving a room there if you plan to stay the night in Danville. It is the only hotel within walking distance of downtown Danville.
8. Prepare for the competitions. Understand the rules. Grow a beard (see photo below).
9. Initiation only hurts temporarily. Do not be scared.

Post Elk Toss Entertainment

We will once again be holding our traditional Tour of Danville following completion of the 75th Annual Elk Toss, Charity Auction, and Winter Festival. In recent years, we have arranged, with the help of our Musical Coordinator, Joey McMonagle, a musical performance by Slimfit at the Pub II.

Due to circumstances beyond our control (although not entirely beyond Sean's control), Slimfit will be unable to perform this year. However, we are working on arranging a performance by Kris Kehr and the Stone Poets coming all the way from State College.

We are also hoping to once again have Danville magician Fred Iobst find us somewhere that evening to amaze us with magical magic tricks.

Would this post be complete without another classic photo?

More Classic Photos

To celebrate our 75th year, we will continue to post photographs from our storied history. Here are a few more. Hopefully, this will get you excited for the Elk Toss (February 20 in case you haven't been paying attention).

We are not mathematicians.

Preliminary Charity List

The preliminary list of charities for the 75th Annual Elk Toss, Winter Festival, and Charity Auction...

Daily Item Needy Family Fund, Sunbury, Northumberland, Danville area
Montour County Summer Concert Series , Danville
Deb's House, Lancaster
Mount Nittany Conservancy, Centre County
Centre Grounds, Centre County

We may add another one or two before the event.

Website Update

We still have not had any luck with finding another free web hosting service which still allows .html upload and doesn't have all sorts of advertisements. We probably won't have a new website until we break down and pay for one. Still looking at that. Until then, keep checking the blog. Luckily, we still have all the files and photos from the website, and we'll occasionally bust out some classic photos.

Like this one...