Fall is here, but the weather hasn’t really improved yet. Lots going on- California Healey Week 2025 is only a week away, CHW 2026 planned for May of 2026 is well underway and more activity is underway for the 75th International Healey Meet which is planned to be held in Lake Tahoe in June of 2027. We are also in discussion about our third annual Turkey Run. We are thinking an overnighter with great drives both days. Keep your eyes open for more info.
Person of interest- Anna Johansson Our Treasurer.
Anna was born in a small town in Sweden- Sparreholm where her family has lived for generations which helps explain her quiet humble nature. Sparreholm is about 1 1⁄2 hours southwest from Stockholm. It is a very small town that you can walk around in about 30 minutes. It has a slott (Swedish for castle) and a church that was built in the 1100s, added on to in the 1300s and Jinal addition in the 1500s. Sparreholm, like most rural places, has seen some modernization in recent reads. They added a roundabout in addition to a stop light that was installed years earlier. Anna didn’t grow up with much interest in cars (Volvos and Saabs) until she moved to the US. She emigrated to the US when she was 26. She studied foreign languages at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, hoping to become an interpreter at the UN when she first came here.
She ended up going to work for an Aerospace company instead where she perfected her skills in Finance. In about 2000 she was introduced to Austin Healeys. She fell in love with them where she enjoys driving them as well going on our trips all over Europe and the US. As part of our European Healey Meet in Norway a couple of years ago, she was able to visit her brother and stay in her mother’s childhood home in Sparreholm which had been converted into a B&B. She is truly a kind and gentle soul.
CHW 2025- We are only about a week away from California Healey Week (also known as Yosemite Healey Week (YHW)) 2025. All the planning is done, the banners, flyers and posters are ready, and a lot of beer and wine bought. All the games and social activities are ready. There are several groups caravaning up with side trips: including fly Jishing and a Sierra passes tour. We have almost 120 people attending. Afterwards there is a group doing a Lone Pine/ Death Vally tour and another heading to Las Vegas for another British car event. It promises to be a great time.
Holiday Party- The planning for our annual Holiday party is continuing. The formal announcement will come out in October once we have CHW 2025 behind us. We will be hosting it at the Shoreline Yacht Club in Long Beach as we have in the past. The party is planned for Sunday, December 14th, so please mark your calendars. This is a great opportunity for our new members to meet other like-minded Healey folks and make connections for future technical and social events.
CHW 2026- Steve Kirby, as our social director, has formalized our CHW 2026 venue. We have settled on a great venue in a new location. We will be announcing the location and venue at YHW 2025. CHW 2026 is planned for the May timeframe next year so keep your calendars open. As with all of Steve’s planned activities, it should be a lot of fun, so stay tuned.
75th Anniversary International Healey Meet- We continue to update the International Healey Meet website and are continuing to take advanced sign-ups. We have over 108 registrations so far. In case you missed the announcement, it can be found at https://www.healey75.com/, so if interested, please go in and check it out including a new video that talks to Lake Tahoe. As a reminder, the 75th International Healey Meet will be held in Lake Tahoe June 2027. There will be lots of great cars, exhibits, drives and social events planned to keep everyone busy.
I would like to ask you to let me know how you came about joining the Healey clan. What was your first car and some fun stories of your “Healey experience”. As always, I can’t thank you enough for keeping up the great support of the Cars and Coffee and British car night activities. It is always great to see so many beautiful Healeys out driving around and being there for folks to share their Healey stories. As always, when considering having work done on your cars, please consider our sponsors. They help our club and provide rare (vanishing) and needed services and products.
As always, safe motoring and stay well!