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2008 Nancy Drew Convention Details
View current convention info--bookmark this page and check back often for updates! Then below, view information on our past conventions! Contact us here.
Lancaster, PA: September 30 - October 5, 2008
The 8th annual Nancy Drew Sleuths' Convention:
2008 CONVENTION DETAILS:
We'll be in the Lancaster area, staying in Bird-in-Hand, our theme is the classic Nancy Drew book, The Witch Tree Symbol.
BOOK/MERCHANDISE DEALERS:
If you would like to reserve a table to sell books and merchandise at the convention on Saturday, October 4 (2:15pm to 5:00pm), at the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn, Bird-in-Hand, PA, please e-mail us using the e-mail link above for rates and information. Limited tables available!
CONVENTION INFO:
Categorized below by Itinerary, Registration Info, Hotel, and Flight Info. We'll be updating this info and fine tuning the itinerary and times as we get closer to the event, so check this website often for updates! E-mail to be put on the e-mail list for the convention if you plan to attend! If you cannot attend all days, please see below for the customizable registration fees to suit your travel dates.
TUES. SEPT. 30: Meet & Greet/Dinner at 7:30pm in the evening at hotel. Nancy Drew activity.
WED. OCT. 1st: Hershey and Strasburg Tours
We will be traveling by car: using everyone's rental/other cars.
AM/Noon:
Hershey, PA--Chocolate World/tour (basic tour is free--if you want to do any other tours, there will be fees), shopping, lunch.
Afternoon/Evening:
Strasburg, PA--Antiques, trains, dinner, evening ghost tour (ghost tour included in registration.)
THURS. OCT. 2nd: Nancy Drew Witch Tree Symbol Day
We will be staying in the Bird-in-Hand area for the day, doing our Witch Tree Amish activities. The hotel gives free Amish farmland tours for those guests registered at the hotel (2 hour tours of farmlands, sights, plus several stops including Amish Quilt shop), so we will be taking those tours in the morning and when we can be accommodated--probably in two or more groups. Also, activities include things done in the book by Nancy and her chums: farmer's market, bakery, antiquing. We will also have a Witch Tree scavenger hunt. We'll have dinner (there are a variety of fast food eateries and restaurants to eat at near the tour so people can pick and choose and we'll split up into smaller groups to facilitate getting done more quickly) and then have a neat evening tour (included in the registration fee) at Amish Farm and House which is a neat tour by lamplight and includes snitz pie, cider, and a hayride.
Evening Nancy Drew activity following tour back at hotel lobby area for those interested.
FRI. OCT. 3rd: Philadelphia or Bust!
We'll be in historic Philadelphia all day and this is considered a free day. So, we will have bus transportation (bus transportation is included in the registration fee) from the hotel in Bird-in-Hand to Philadelphia. We will be dropped at a central location and everyone can split up and do your own thing for the day--there's so much to see in Philadelphia--or you can stay with the convention coordinators for some sight seeing around Independence Square and a few sights from the Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mystery: A Question of Guilt, which was set in Philadelphia. We'll have a list of book stores in the area for anyone wanting to do some book hunting. We will meet up for dinner at a specified time/location, and then the bus will pick us up for transport back to the hotel. It's about an hour to an hour and a half depending on traffic from Bird-in-Hand to Philadelphia. Due to the long day and later arrival (around 9pm to 10pm approximate) we will not have any formal Nancy Drew activities planned for the evening, but you're welcome to congregate and visit informally in the lobby, etc.. (Please note, there will not be bus transportation that we provide during the day, just to and from Philly.)
SAT. OCT. 4th: Sleuth Convention Day & Witch Tree Barn Dance
AM: Until 2pm=Free Time
Afternoon: 2:15pm to 5:00pm: Sleuth Convention Day at hotel: Activities, Speakers, and a raffle for Nancy Drew prizes. Speakers finalized at this time are: author Jennifer Fisher, author Penny Warner, and author Michael G. Cornelius. More to be added.
PM: 6:30pm: Dinner at Bird-in-Hand Family Restaurant and Smorgasbord, next to hotel. 8:00pm to 11:00pm: Witch Tree Barn Dance at hotel: Nancy Drew gift exchange, dance, desserts, drinks, and a Nancy Drew activity. (Included in registration fee for Sat: convention, dinner, barn dance.)
(Gift exchange: this is our Nancy Drew theme gift exchange--involves crafty gifts that most people make, with Nancy Drew as the obvious theme. You don't have to participate, but it is lots of fun, so if you want to, bring a gift, wrapped anonymously, specify if it's not unisex that it's for a boy or a girl to avoid a guy getting a purse for example or a girl getting a man's tie. Let us know if you will be participating.)
SUN. OCT. 5:
Brunch at restaurant near hotel for those available.
REGISTRATION FEES/DEADLINES:
Fees: $125.00 for official Sleuth members, $140.00 for non-Sleuths. DUE BY: June 15, 2008. Registration Fee is NONREFUNDABLE! Pay via Pay Pal to nancydrewsleuth@aol.com or send a check or money order payable to: Jennifer Fisher, P.O. Box 128, Higley, AZ 85236-0128.
(PLEASE NOTE: If you're just coming for the weekend events and not Wed/Thurs), fee is $100.00 for official Sleuth members, $115 for non-Sleuths.)
Registration Fee includes only these items, so print this for your handy double checking: Wednesday: Ghost Tour in Strasburg, Thursday: Evening Lamp tour/hayride, Friday: bus transportation to Philly and back, Saturday: convention, dinner, barn dance/activities. Fee also includes: DVD of convention and shipping of DVD, goody bag for attendees. Anything not mentioned here, is NOT included in the registration fee--it does not include, therefore: all meals (other than Saturday's dinner), chipping in of gas for car drivers if you so desire and end up in a car for an activity, your souvenir shopping, any tours you wish to take on your own, your transportation to/from the area, and your hotel, etc.
IF YOU ARE ATTENDING, WHEN YOU REGISTER, LET US KNOW THE FOLLOWING ASAP:
1. date/approx time of arrival/departure
2. need a roommate?
3. any special needs?
4. participating in gift exchange?
5. will have your own car there for use in transporting attendees who do not have a car?
6. any activities you can't attend?
7. plan to stay with group or go off on own in Philadelphia?
HOTEL INFO:
Sept. 30-Oct. 5, 2008. We'll be in the Lancaster area, staying in Bird-in-Hand at the Bird-in-Hand Family Inn. Rates: single/97.00, doubles/107.00, triple/117.00, and quads/127.00.
Call for your reservations--they'll book quickly as this time of year is popular: 800-537-2535. Deadline to book a room is August 30, 2008. But we suggest booking quickly--you can always cancel ahead of time if you have to. We have a block of 20 rooms as of right now.
FLIGHT INFO:
Bird-in-Hand does not have an airport. There is a small one in Lancaster which is about 15 minutes from Bird-in-Hand give or take. Other airports to consider which are about an hour+ from Bird-in-Hand are: Philadelphia, PA, Harrisburg, PA, and Baltimore, MD.
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The original "Carolyn Keene"
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Nancy Drew Sleuths Conventions
Conventions are open to both Sleuth members and non-members, but Sleuth members receive special
discounts and perks. Book dealers are encouraged to come and set up books for sale, a small dealer
table fee will be charged.
Annually, the Nancy Drew Sleuths get together for a convention filled with presentations, activities,
and book and antique hunting. The convention is a great time for series book collectors to
meet, trade books and stories, and hunt for missing books from their collection. Convention
locations are chosen to tie-in with the Nancy Drew® books to add a more nostalgic flair to the
event.
Past Conventions & Highlights
April 2002: Iowa City, Iowa. Members visited The University of Iowa to view Mildred Wirt Benson's archives
of photographs, outlines, letters, columns, stories, and ephemera. They visted with the organizers
of the 1993 Nancy Drew Conference, held at the university, Carolyn Stewart-Dyer and Nancy Tillman
Romalov and presentations were given. A trip to Ladora, Mildred's hometown, to view her childhood
home and meet her family was a wonderful experience for all who attended.
April/May 2003: New York City, New York. Members spent a week touring sites of New York including
Stratemeyer themed sites. Visits to the New York Public Library Stratemeyer archives were met
with enthusiasm of members who got to delve into Stratemeyer Syndicate lore. Highlighting the week's
activities and book hunting was a visit to a book dealer's home with thousands of series books and a local
collector's huge Nancy Drew® collection spanning books, collectibles, and artwork. Capping off the
week was a successful day of presentations from the Stratemeyer family, the Russell H. Tandy family,
Simon & Schuster, Applewood Books, and Sharon Reid Harris.
March 2001: Toledo, Ohio. Members met the original "Carolyn Keene," Mildred Wirt
Benson, and had
books signed and asked lots of questions. They toured sites of Toledo, went book hunting, and ate dinner at a haunted
restaurant.
March 2004: New Orleans, Lousiana. Members spent the week visiting historic and haunted sites in the
French Quarter and outerlying areas, Nancy Drew® theme sites mentioned in the books set in New Orleans,
went book and antique hunting, joined in on a crawfish boil and BBQ at a local collector's home, visited a
historic plantation, attended a Nancy Drew® murder mystery party aboard a "haunted showboat" on its dinner
and jazz cruise, and attended a day of presentations from Sleuth members Sharon Reid Harris, Todd Latoski, Meredith Jaffe, Rachel Smith,
and presentations by Simon & Schuster and Gumshoe Girls.
The Nancy Drew 75th & Stratemeyer Syndicate 100th Anniversary Conference was held June 16-19, 2005 in NYC,
with a few
Sleuth events. For details on the conference, click
here.
October 2005: Phoenix, AZ. Members were treated to a Shadow Ranch and Kachina Doll Nancy Drew®
theme during their week in Phoenix, AZ. Highlights include: Meet and Greet Dinner, Ghost Town tour and Dirk Valentine Treasure
Hunt, Western Dinner, Kachina Doll collection tour, book hunting, Kachina Doll dinner and mystery hunt at "hacienda", tour of
Jenn Fisher's collection, day of presentations from: Garrett Lothe, Renee Walker, Jenn Fisher, and Dean Burcham, book dealers set up. Game play
of lifesize version of Nancy Drew® Mystery Game from the 1950s. Lots of prizes given out and trivia contests. 3 Goody Bags given
out.
October: 2006: Chicago, IL.
Members toured "River Heights Country" while solving mysteries at Red Gate Farm and found a Hollow Oak treasure! Activities
included: All Day Bus trip of book hunting, antiquing, visit to a real life Red Gate Farm, Hollow Oak treasure hunt,
Sleuth Madonna's
Red Gate Farm party, Chicago sightseeing, visit to the American Girl Store to view Nancy Drew® book on display, Danger on
the
Great Lakes dinner cruise on Lake Michigan, presentations at the Chicago Children's Museum, a Chicago Style Deep Dish
Pizza dinner, a Joker's
Revenge game, and a fun Nancy Drew® theme gift exchange.
June: 2007: Pasadena, CA.
The Sleuths had their first movie & TV theme convention, timed to the release of the Warner Brothers movie, Nancy Drew.
Members toured the Huntington Library and viewed some sights where the Nancy Drew® movie was filmed, went book hunting, and played a Nancy
Drew® cover art game. On the day of the movie's release, members held a Nancy Drew® 101 event at the Burbank Public Library, toured
Warner Brothers Studios, and saw the Nancy Drew® movie. The Sleuths held their big convention day at the Pasadena Hilton and featured 7 speakers on a
variety of topics, had book and merchandise sales, and that evening held a special 1930s Nancy Drew® murder mystery party complete with
skits, a prize, and a fun Nancy Drew® theme gift exchange. A tour of Dave Farah's collection and BBQ was a highlight!
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