Saturday, November 15, 2008, the Wheels Through Time Museum held its sixth annual raffle drawing in Maggie Valley, NC in front of a cheery, winter afternoon crowd. Held during the annual Haywood County Toy Run, put on by the local Blue Ridge Thunder Motorcycle Club, this year’s drawing saw another great turnout, despite threatening weather throughout the morning. Over one thousand toy-runners and museum visitors gathered for the 2:00 p.m. drawing, hoping their name would be announced as the lucky winner of a 1940 Harley-Davidson.
Allen Saum (right) and family pose in front of the 2008 Grand Prize 1940 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead
This year’s winner was Allen Saum of Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. Allen happened to visit the museum merely by chance after bumping into museum curator, Dale Walksler, at a convenience store in February of this year. On a trip with his son’s boy scout troop, Allen stopped for gas on the way out of town and, after meeting Dale, decided to bring the troop to Wheels Through Time for a tour. After a guided afternoon tour with the museum staff, Allen and a few of the other parents in the group bought tickets. Over nine months later received the call letting him know that he was the lucky winner.
The 2008 Grande Prize was a genuine 1940 Harley-Davidson Knucklehead built by museum curator, Dale Walksler, in the Wheels Through Time restoration shop. The museum has held an annual raffle fundraiser since 2002, and has featured Grand Prize machines such as a 1951 Harley-Davidson Panhead, a 1936 Harley-Davidson VLH, and a 1946 Harley-Davidson Flathead “forty-five”. Winners of the raffle have emerged from Massachusetts to as close as Gatlinburg, TN, with Pawley’s Island being the newest addition to the list.