Jerry Francis Collection

Years of Vacations, Travels, and Trips

In late 2025, Jerry Francis packed his lifetime sand collection so a fellow ISCS member could get it to Sandfest 2025 at Sterling Nature Center in New York where it would be offered to attendees.

The three members of the donations committee shared a rental house with three other members for Sandfest. We went through the collection the first night and had a wonderful time doing it. We had just arrived from various locations (OR,WA, MN, MA & FL). Not all of us knew each other well and unpacking and sorting the collection was a wonderful conversation starter. Some wanted to organize by location and others thought it fun to try to follow the path of Jerry’s travels. We needed interesting sands to photograph for this page. Everyone wanted to tell stories of their travels to recognized locations. Eventually, we got down to choosing interesting sands for the camera and preparing the rest to offer to the members the next day. Larger samples were subdivided so that more members could have them.

When offered on the club's sand table, there was immediate interest. "Feeding frenzy" would be a bit overwrought but they were quickly grabbed by others.  At the end of the multi-day event, we still had the boats with several people interested in those. Those sold at auction to generate funds for shipping of future donated collections.

The souvenir sands from the Isle of Wight and the “sand” and the Bruce Meyer 204 mph run at Bonneville 2012 were also auctioned due to demand.

The Francis collection represented many years of travel fun. It was very well received at Sandfest and continues to bring joy to others.

A portion of the Jerry Francis collection on display.