Dear Friend,

Benjamin Franklin said that nothing in this world was certain except death and taxes. I don't think Ben would mind if I added "change" to his list. It certainly applies to the casino industry!

I am forever grateful to my grandfather and my dad who taught me to embrace change - not to fear it. They were both butchers and saw their industry changing to the point where jobs like theirs would be few and far between. Their guidance set me on a career path first as a professional chef and now as the General Manager of the Ramada Express Hotel Casino - talk about change!

I've learned that change is good and I'd like to share with you some of the ideas we've planned for the Ramada Express.

For the past 10 years, we've paid tribute to our American Veterans, first with a museum that was meant to last only a few weeks. Then we added a speaker program for Veterans to share their stories, created a patriotic multi-media show, and continued by giving each American Veteran a free commemorative pin as our way of saying thanks. In 1999, we created our non-profit American Heroes Foundation (AHF) to raise funds for recognized Veteran causes.

My intent is to continue recognizing and thanking our Veterans by taking our commitment to a new level. We have set an aggressive goal for the American Heroes Foundation to raise a record $100,000 this year so that we may continue to purchase vans to transport disabled Veterans to their medical appointments.

One free Veteran pin continues to be available to current and new members of our Distinguished Players Club. We are in the process of designing a new pin that will be available next spring. And we continue to offer a Veterans Club Card.

Through the years, over 500,000 people have visited our museum and we are very proud that we've been able to provide a venue to exhibit this valuable and historical memorabilia. And while the museum and our patriotic show will be retired, we are actively looking for new locations within the local community to continue to display key exhibits.

In addition, we are renaming our showroom the American Heroes Pavilion. New Pavilion shows will be added and a portion of every ticket sale will be donated to the American Heroes Foundation so that we may meet our $100,000 goal.

Another great philosopher put it bluntly "put your money where your mouth is" and that's exactly what we're doing with our Veteran's program. Change is good indeed!

Warm regards,

George Stadler
President and General Manager