Voice of the People

This letter is to thank the Northwest Indiana community as well as visitors, who, in spite of the downpour and hundred year flood, came together during Munchkinland Market Days the weekend of September 12-14 and made it possible to donate $401 to the Westchester Neighbors Food Pantry. The funds were a result of the sale of a Munchkinland Market Days souvenir program book.   The books were sold at a suggested donation of $2 with the proceeds going to the food pantry.  Some people offered more than the suggested $2 clearly illustrating the generosity of the community during this difficult time.

The Duneland businesses and people who came together to produce the program book were the employees and management of Centier Bank, Chesterton’s Hilton Garden Inn and The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop.  Further assisting the project with ads were Edmonds & Evans Funeral Home of Chesterton and Portage and Haines Collision Center of Chesterton.  This allowed the cost of the production of the book to be underwritten so the entire proceeds from sales went directly to the Westchester Neighbors Food Pantry.  A great deal of gratitude goes to these businesses and their employees.

We also thank the celebrities who appeared at Munchkinland Market Days for autographing the books at no charge for those making a donation.  They were Caren Marsh-Doll – Judy Garland’s stand-in for MGM’s “The Wizard of Oz,” Karl Slover who played the Munchkin trumpet player, artist Tim Wolak, poster artist Rick Ewigleben and authors John Fricke and Philip Potempa.  Those unable to purchase a book, may still help by sending a check directly to Westchester Neighbor’s Food Pantry, P.O. Box 902, Chesterton, Indiana 46304. 

Munchkinland Market Days is produced by and held on the grounds of The Yellow Brick Road.  Proceeds from the program book have been donated annually to a charity in north Porter County since the program book began publication seven years ago.  The Westchester Public Library received donations first two years followed by the Duneland YMCA for two years.  The 2006 and 2007 charity was the Westchester Neighbor’s Food Pantry.  The decision was made to again name Westchester Neighbor’s Food Pantry as recipient due to the dramatic increase in requests for food made to the pantry over the past year.

This letter is also to thank the thousands of people from Northwest Indiana including those from Chesterton and the entire Duneland area who have supported The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop & Oz Fantasy Museum over the past 30 years.  Due to the 75% reduction in attendance at Munchkinland Market Days because of the flood this year and the economy which continues to falter, our final day of business at The Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop in Chesterton will be Wednesday, December 31, 2008.  However, our Internet business will continue at www.yellowbrickroadonline.com

We appreciate the hundreds of well-wishers who have contacted us and thank them for their extremely kind words.

                                                   Oz and Munchkin love to all,

                                                  Marilyn Zengler,

soon to be former proprietor

                           Yellow Brick Road Gift Shop