GE, as most of you know, was our very first and longest term customer (going on 23 years!)

Last night was their annual “Bids for Kids” dinner, which LP has always sponsored. A nice dinner and auction that supports Shriners Hospital, the Boys and Girls Clue and Make a Wish Foundation (all great organizations). A very nice event. It was a roaring 20’s theme, so Hallie and I dressed up appropriately.

Had some good quality time with a lot of our old friends at GE: Jim Meyer, Greg Sbrocco, Kevin Uht, Bill Hallie, Jessica Barker, Natalie Lee. Nice to see them, and nice to see the optimism with the upcoming Wabtec merger.

As always were a lot of cool items up for bid. Autographed helmets, vacations, concert tickets, football and hockey games, but there were a few things that we wanted to bid on. (Sorry guys, we lost out on the Pens/Caps tix and the Ju Ju Smith Shuster autographed helmet and the Penn State Season tickets—can’t win ‘em all) but we did win some things.

There was this beautiful tapestry from Kashmir that I thought would look great in Union Station and we were able to win that.

It’s like 5’ tall and very heavy. Beautifully made, and a real work of art.

There was also a bag full of Gannon stuff that we won and can give to Hallie’s daughter, Rylee—a freshman there. Blankets, thermoses, coffee mugs, towels and a bunch of other cool Gannon University things.

My main target for the night was this model Indian Railways locomotive. It is really big, and since LP helped moved the first 100 GE locos to India (and hope to move the next 900 over the next 10 years) I thought it was fitting we win it. Hallie cleverly outbid the competition and now it is ours. Cool!

And last thing we won was a very nice Specialized bike that Hallie wanted for her Dad since he can’t drive and will need some way to get around. Wide tires, good bike. The only problem is how do we get it home, but I solved that. I rode it (in my suit and tie—see above) the 5 miles from the Convention Center to our house at 10pm in @ 20 degree weather.

When I told the LP gang at our table (Cassie, Stephanie, Meghan, Molly, Jason and Cisco—thanks for coming, guys) what I was doing, most of the girls (who have only known me for a year or two) were kind of in shock. But Cisco just looked at me, laughed and said, “Of course you are”.  He knows me too well 😀.

Made it home safe and sound (though wish I had a pair of gloves) to end a very fun (and successful) night for a good cause.

Jim Berlin, CEO, Logistics Plus