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Sommerer Family Fall Heit’s Point Workday

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You probably received this same information via email.

Apparently one family workday a year at Heit’s Point is no longer good enough for us.

We are planning a Sommerer Family Fall Work Weekend at Heit’s Point, October 2–4. This is in addition to, rather than in place of, our Spring Workday.

The main project Heit’s Point would like us to tackle is sealing/resurfacing the parking area at the Spitz Center. This is a fairly large job, and they would like to have about 10–15 able-bodied people for it. Before they make arrangements for the equipment and materials, however, we need to know whether we actually have 10–15 relatives who are willing to admit to being (reasonably) able-bodied.

There are also several other projects in and around the pavilion that we may work on, depending on how many people we have and what can be prepared ahead of time. Those currently include things like:

  • Removing the old gutters and repairing damaged wood before new gutters are installed
  • Installing exhaust fans in the bathrooms
  • Cleaning out or dealing with unused items in the kitchen area
  • Working on the area where the memorial pavers are installed
  • Other smaller painting, sealing, electrical, or repair projects as needed

In other words, we should be able to find something useful for just about anyone who wants to come help.

Food and lodging

Heit’s Point will provide one meal for the group. Linda has applied for a $250 Thrivent card to help with the other meals, and Debbie has volunteered to take care of breakfast. We will firm up the rest of the meal plans once we know how many people are coming.

Lodging at Heit’s Point will be available at half price, although the Spitz Center itself is not available that weekend. If you want to stay overnight, you will need to make those arrangements directly with Janine Mallardi at Heit’s Point.

What we need from you

Please take a minute or two to fill out this very short form:

[GOOGLE FORM LINK]

We are mainly trying to find out:

  • Who is coming
  • Which days you can help
  • How many people in your group can help with the heavier work
  • Meal counts
  • Whether anyone is interested in helping pay for materials for some of the pavilion projects

Even if you are only coming for part of a day, please fill it out. A surprisingly large portion of organizing a family workday consists of trying to determine whether “I think quite a few people are coming” means 8 people or 18 people.

Please also forward this to any family members who might not receive these emails.

Thanks to Danny, who was elected at the family meeting to organize this event while conveniently not present to object, and to Jim, Sam, Linda, Debbie, and everyone else who has already been working on pieces of it.

2026 Reunion Information

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This year will mark our 30th Consecutive family reunion at Heit’s Point! Tell your family and friends! Let’s see if we can get some family members we haven’t seen for a while to join us.  

Here is the long awaited 2026 reunion information. As is our custom, the information has been divided into four separate pages, nominally to make things easier to find, but actually because it’s just easier for Lloyd if we do it this way.

  • General Information quick notes:
    • Start there. That page has most of the information you want.
    • Dates: Friday, July 3 through Sunday, July 5. But some people may be arriving on Thursday, July 2.
  • Reservation Page quick notes:
    • We will continue to work so that the oldest members of the family can have rooms in the Spitz Center if they want them.
    • We’re once again asking for information from people who are coming to the reunion, but not staying at Heit’s Point, so that we can get a more accurate head count for meals.
  • Meal Page quick notes:
    • Pete will be providing the evening meal on Friday. The menu is top secret, but he has given assurances that it comes from a highly reputable venue. You don’t have to bring anything.
    • We will be having 3 meals again on Saturday: Breakfast (provided, come help), Lunch (sign-up), and Supper (meat provided, bring side/dessert).
  • Schedule Page quick notes:
    • After the more or less successful job boards last year, we are continuing to refine this idea. You can sign up for things or Danny will sign you up.
    • If you want anything added to the schedule, just let Lloyd know.

Things you need to do:

  • Let your family know that this is the 30th Reunion at Heit’s Point, and we want to make a special effort to see as many family members together as possible.
  • Let Christina know how many of you are coming and what, if any, lodging you need on the reservation page near the bottom.
  • Let Lloyd Jr. know what you’d like to sign up to bring for Saturday lunch on the meal page near the bottom.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you can use the comment area at the bottom of these pages to make your feelings known.

If any of the links don’t work, let Lloyd know.

2025 Reunion Information

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Here is the long awaited 2025 reunion information. As is our custom, the information has been divided into four separate pages to make things easier to find and/or to make everything more confusing:

  • General Information quick notes:
    • Start there. That page has most of the information you want.
    • Dates: Friday, July 4 through Sunday, July 6. But some people may be arriving on Thursday, July 3.
  • Reservation Page quick notes:
    • We will continue to work so that the oldest members of the family can have rooms in the Spitz Center if they want them.
    • We’re once again asking for information from people who are coming to the reunion, but not staying at Heit’s Point, so that we can get a more accurate head count for meals.
  • Meal Page quick notes:
    • Aunt Lolly (and/or Grandma Lolly, Great grandma Lolly, and Sister Lolly) will be providing the evening meal on Friday. The menu will be fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, and desert. You don’t have to bring anything.
    • We will be having 3 meals again on Saturday.
    • There is a sign-up “sheet” for what to bring for lunch on Saturday.
  • Schedule Page quick notes:
    • After the more or less successful dish washing schedule last year, we are making a general Job Board. You can sign up for things or Pete will sign you up.
    • If you want anything added to the schedule, just let Lloyd know.

Things you need to do:

  • Let Christina know how many of you are coming and what, if any, lodging you need on the reservation page near the bottom.
  • Let Lloyd Jr. know what you’d like to sign up to bring for Saturday lunch on the meal page near the bottom.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, you can use the comment area at the bottom of any of these pages to make your feelings known.

If any of the links don’t work, let Lloyd know.

2024 Reunion After-Action-Review

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Customarily, I write up my thoughts on this year’s reunion and possible changes for next year. You guys are all welcome to add your own thoughts and ideas in the comments below. It’s a lot more fun if you do.

2025 reunion dates: Friday, July 4th to Sunday, July 6th

We had a total of about 102 people at the reunion this year, including about 10 of the “Nebraska Sommerers” who I’ve been inviting down for years. If was nice that some of them could make it, and I was disappointed that I missed them by a few hours. They are about your third cousins (more or less, depending on who you are).

Including the money given during church, you guys raised a little over $13,000 for the outdoor kitchen during the reunion, which brings the total to over $18,000. So nice work everyone. You’ll also be happy to know that the “Jim’s Beer fund” is fully endowed thanks to a generous donation made in Greer Baker’s name. A more fitting tribute to Greer could not possibly have been found.

Also, Linda and Bill have donated the money for the bricks for our family members who have passed away recently. You guys are the best.

Several people told me, and I completely agree, that taking the family picture before supper was an excellent idea, and we should continue to do that in the future. We didn’t have people wandering off, and it gave us at least a half hour more daylight for the softball game.

I also thought that the fans for the potluck tables were a great addition as well. Let’s do that again as well.

Thanks to everyone who signed up on the job boards. If you felt like there were not enough people to do a job with you, say something in the comments, and we’ll add more people to that job. If there are additional jobs that need to be added, please mention that as well.

Sam and I talked about coming up with a better system for hanging things up. We’ll work on that for next year.

I thought the meals went pretty well this year. Some of you told me that for lunch we ended up with:

  • Too many olives (one small black and one small green would be fine).
  • Too much snack cheese. I don’t know if I agree with that, because I took the extra home (Thanks Andrew), and have been enjoying it very much.
  • Not quite enough sandwich cheese (this was actually my fault, and didn’t have anything to do with the list).
  • Exactly the right amount of lettuce. I mean, like, to the leaf.

It’s pretty hard to predict just what we will need for lunch, because we make the list before we know how many people are coming. Your best bet is to sign up for something that you wouldn’t mind having to take the extras home with you. But I do appreciate the feedback, and will adjust the items for next year accordingly. As always, add any additional changes needed in the comments below.

We were maybe a little heavy on the main dishes, and a little light on sides and salads the first night. I don’t know what everyone brings for that first night, so I’m not entirely sure what the fix is. It could be signing up for two of those three items, or maybe just a spot we can say what we’re bringing so that people can look at the list and decide what they want to bring. Or maybe it wasn’t a problem at all, and I should leave well enough alone.

Summer(er) Kitchen Update

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Jim sent in this update about the Outdoor Kitchen Project:

Hello all!  This is an approximate drawing of the Sommerer Kitchen.  The size will be 13′ 6″ X 13′ 6″.  This drawing doesn’t show it, But I have an approximately 30″ x 72″ very nice grill. It will be free standing, and possibly movable. The estimated cost of this project will be around $15,500, for the Cadillac.  Materials only! Janine is on board and ready to get started this fall but we are short of funds. 

We’ve been talking about this for a couple of years, and have donated some money toward the project. You can read what we’ve said in the past here. Maybe we should do a special collection this year? We did something similar for the new roof project a few years ago and raised over $10,000.