About a week back we passed through the half way point of our Centennial year here at California Cedar Products Company. We’ve been pretty quiet about all this on the Timberlines blog so far, but there has been lots of activity behind the scenes prepping a number of projects and events in celebration of achieving this milestone later this year on December 14th.
This all starts this week with a multi-day Centennial Celebration here in California which includes many of out top slat customers and pencil brands from the world attending to visit our facilities, participate in a sawmill and forestry tour and to join us in a final Gala dinner and show at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Thursday June 29th. Representatives from company’s such as Schwan Cosmetics, Schwan Stabilo, Mistubishi Pencil Co., Caran d’Ache, General Pencil Co., A.W. Faber-Castell, Musgrave Pencil Co., Cumberland Pencil (Derwent), Tombow and more will be in attendance in addition to a number of our wood suppliers and other special guests. The final dinner show event, “An Evening of Magic, Music and Memories” will be a fun event featuring some of our Blackwing musicians and some new faces. We are excited to have the chance to thank our customers, suppliers, employees and other collaborative partners for their long and positive relationships and support in reaching this milestone. In a sense we’re the youngster in this group as each of the companies I listed above have achieved the centennial mark and more, which is an interesting statement on the longevity of a number of the most famous companies and brands in the world’s pencil industry. We are proud to be associated with these industry partners and to be respected as a long term reliable supplier of Genuine Incense-cedar and other species pencil slats.
Our longtime friend and slat customer Masanobu Sakamoto at Sakamoto & Company, couldn’t attend, though sent us this decorated chocolate set shown a gift to help us celebrate our 100th year. Deco Choco is a new venture by Sakamoto branching out into customized chocolates, candies and snacks as an outgrowth of their decorated stationery, pens and pencils. They even have a bricks and mortar location in the Ginza area of Tokyo.
On the new product front our recent Blackwing Volume 73 release is a tribute to Lake Tahoe and was timed to coordinate with this event. Though not an official Centennial product it seemed a fitting choice and we’re happy to have teamed up with the League to Save Lake Tahoe to Keep Tahoe Blue, by donating $2 in the name of each Volumes subscriber. So if you’re not a subscriber already here’s an added chance to participate and help out with these by subscribing here.
A final project to give you a head up about is that I’ve been busy over the past year writing a history of the company “The Story of CalCedar: 100 Years of Pencil Supply History“. Just yesterday we received the first 100 copies in time to use as gifts for participants at this week’s Gala event, but the balance will be arriving soon and we may be making some available on Pencils.com for those interested once we get a handle. More to come on this project, and other centennial related items as we get through the busy but exciting week ahead.
