Most of us know Jack Portice as the man behind the Colorado Motorcycle Show & Swap, the largest in the Rocky Mountain Region. What you may not know is that Jack is also ABATE of Colorado's oldest (in terms of membership years) member.

For Jack, this is a year of milestones. His swap meet celebrated its 25th anniversary in February, 2003. The month also marked Jack's anniversary with ABATE – making him the only 20 year member of ABATE. He became a member in 1983 at the swap meet held in Sterling just when ABATE of Colorado was organizing.

At some point (Jack doesn't remember exactly when), he began trading booth space to ABATE at the CMSS event in return for advertisement in the Spokesman. Eventually, our space grew into two booths so we could run a coat check in addition to our usual information booth.

When asked if he had any profound statements to make, Jack just said “Thanks for everyone's support over the years.” But I have to tell you Jack was very pleased with his 20-year pin – and I got a hug....

Note: Jack reports that the Saturday, Feb 1 attendance at the CMSS exceeded 11,800 and Sunday, Feb 2 was right at 4900. This does not include the 2000 vendors.