February 20, 2012Dear Sir,Having participated in several Coldwell Banker/Bermuda Realty Homeshows, I am compelled to write to express my gratitude to Susan Thompson, her team, and everybody at Bermuda Realty for continuing to sponsor and organise this annual event. Weeks before participating in our company’s first Homeshow, several years ago, I had attended the US Kitchen and Bath Show in Las Vegas. It was so large that the entire show could not be seen in two days of hiking. Large companies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for elaborate displays that included laser and water shows, truckloads of promotional goods everything was on a grand scale.After setting up our first, rather crude, display, down in the luxurious Number One Shed that first year we took part, I had a chance to look around. Quite a contrast to my experience in Las Vegas weeks before. The Homeshow here had something Vegas lacked sorely. Heart!I was, and remain, greatly impressed with the level of effort Bermudian businesses put into this event. What Bermuda Realty organises annually is a unique opportunity for any business catering to anyone with a home, to present their offerings to the Bermudian public. The businesses come, participate side-by-side, and they bring game! Thousands of consumers come too.If you live in a home in Bermuda, and you have not attended, you are missing something good. As a participant, it’s very rewarding, effective and totally exhausting. This year, having knocked down our, of late, very simple booths at the show, I ran to town to do some errands. On my way back to where I stay, more than 90 minutes after the show’s end, I observed what appeared to be Bermuda Realty’s Jack Kripl, headed around the Prospect roundabout, in a loaded van, back toward town.Our company has had relatively complicated booths in the past (triple bunk-beds were a challenge), with fun games and expensive prizes. And, although the economy changed many companies’ displays, it did not change the heart each brings to these shows each year. Throughout the past ten years, Coldwell Banker/Bermuda Realty has never wavered. They consistently produce this opportunity for businesses and consumers alike, and, further, they unfailingly shake off our thanks for doing so with gratitude for our participation. Small business is the heart of any economy, large or small. This event is the single most effective event of its kind benefiting both business and the consumer in Bermuda. Nobody has a tougher booth to set up than Coldwell Banker-Bermuda Realty, it’s the whole show! Kudos to you!JOSHUA BATECity of Hamilton