Museum collection shows Olympic spirit

by Sharlene Irete

sirete@recordcourier.com

A display of memorabilia from Olympic games past is just in time to add to the spirit of the 2010 winter games in Vancouver.

Bill Baltz, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church in Gardnerville, donated his Olympic pin and memorabilia collection to the Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center. Part of the collection will be on display in the changing exhibit room in the Gardnerville museum for at least a month.

The collection includes thousands of mounted and framed pins of international flags, Olympic rings and torches, mascots, and event logos from the Sarajevo '84 Winter Olympics, L.A. '84, Calgary '88, Atlanta '96, and the Seattle '90 Goodwill Games. There are corporate issue pins with the names of sponsors: Atari, Kodak, Sony, Sports Illustrated, Merrill Lynch, Brother, Motorola, McDonalds, IBM.

Baltz's collection started after he attended the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

"I lived in L.A. and worked for Xerox. One of our executives gave me a bag of pins and told me to bring some back," Baltz said.

Pins are popular Olympic souvenirs that people trade like baseball cards, and after the '84 Olympics, Baltz was hooked. Over the years he collected thousands of pins without actually buying any.

"Everything I got was free, working for Xerox," he said. "I wrote to companies to get their pins that were meant for promotion. They were happy someone wanted their pins."

On display are Olympic hats, magazines, programs, small bronze statues of athletes and equestrians, and an autographed photo of decathlete Rafer Johnson as he carried the torch for the Los Angeles games.

The collection also includes plastic cards for a stadium card stunt in the opening ceremony for the 1984 Olympics. The red, white, blue and black cards have handles on either side and instructions on the back in four languages telling the holder when to flash their colors.

His framed pin collection covered the walls and hallway of his home in Los Angeles, but had been in boxes ever since he moved to Gardnerville two and a half years ago.

"I gave the collection unconditionally to the Douglas County Historical Society to keep and put on display, so people can enjoy them. The fun was getting them."

The Carson Valley Museum & Cultural Center, 1477 Highway 395, Gardnerville, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Information, www.historicnevada.org or 782-2555.