Kiwanis Club of Historic St. Augustine

Newsletter – 16 March 2006

President’s Message:

It’s Still Official!! Village Inn is the place to be on Thursday mornings at 0700 hours. We’ve had great turnout for the first two weeks, so I think we can drop this next week. The word is out and the members have responded.

Well I hope I don’t have to say it more than once, but tonight is the night of our annual Geography Bee. This will be held at Sebastian Middle School, and ALL MEMBERS need to be present. This is not work. You know that it ain’t work if it’s fun. Well, this ain’t work. New members, this is a must attend. Most of us have signed up for a job, but I know for one that Tim Chiu will not be there, and he had a job. He had a meeting to attend in Cocoa so someone who hasn’t signed up can fill in his spot. Bring your better half if you can, just be there! Get there about 6:30pm to get your marching orders and get the lay of the land. Trust me, you will have fun, and you will learn something. If you have a Kiwanis shirt, wear it. (Speaking of which, we need to start an order to get some for our new members, and for those who would like a new shirt that hasn’t shrunk.) I also would be remiss if I didn’t thank Privett – Niles & Associates, local surveyors and engineers, for their generous contribution of $300 to help us defray the cost of the Geography Bee. (Thanks too, to our own Joy Day, who knows who to talk to at Privett – Niles & Associates. When they first began collaborating with us, she worked for them.)

Coming Events: [Advise the editor of events of interest at 797-4332]

16 March 2006: Our annual Geography Bee to be held at Sebastian Middle School beginning at 1830 hours for us.

3 April 2006: Regular monthly board meeting to be held at The Allegro. The meeting will start at 1700 hours. There is much to discuss, so be prompt and be prepared to share some ideas.

Guests: Harry Matteson, our fellow Kiwanian from Malone, NY, is here for his annual vacation; and joining him was our local football coach, Mark Shelley. We understand that Mark has a desire to join this motley crew.

Programs: (Check the website for your speaker assignment date.)

LAST WEEK: Skeeter introduced Joanne Johnson, the director of the SJC Full Service Schools. This is an outreach program letting the community know what services are available to them. On 6 May they will be sponsoring An Odyssey of Community Awareness from 1000 to 1400 hours. The event will be held at South Wood Elementary School near Hastings. She handed out a flyer and it indicates that there will be many events to entice the folks to the school.

We also honored our Student of the Month, Todd Stacy, from Bartram Trail HS. Mark Foreson, the principal, did the honors. Todd was accompanied by his parents, who basked in the glow of their son’s achievements.

THIS WEEK: Otis Mason is up, and he usually has a very good speaker in tow.

NEXT WEEK: Art Liepold will present local artist, and former member of our club, Sam Dee Thomas. It will be good to see Sammy again. He was a good member, and you could always count on him to be there.

⅓-⅓-⅓ DRAWING WINNERS: Skeeter Key and Doug Hernandez were the winners. Congrats and mix those tickets up better next time. Buy your tickets early and often. (With Tim absent this week can someone show up early and sell the tickets?)

Late Breaking News:

Your Board has decided to investigate having a Peanut Day this year. For those who are new to Kiwanis, there are two projects that are very popular with Kiwanis clubs nationwide. One is a pancake breakfast, and the other is a peanut day. It is so popular, that you can even order the peanuts from Kiwanis. We haven’t held a Peanut Day since John Dulaney left the club to move to Melbourne. My chief complaint was that you stood in the road to sell them to people in their cars. Our soon to be President, Richard Hedges who is familiar with both of these projects, is in charge of this project, so if he asks for help say, “Yes.” He is like me and does not like to stand in the way of automobiles, so I believe he is planning to stand in front of Wal-Mart or some other large store. We are anticipating his first report.

Well, it’s that time of year when the azaleas bloom and the basketball tourney begins. I am not a basketball fan, but I do like to watch the later rounds of the NCAA Tournament. When it’s “Win or Go Home,” the game gets rather exciting. For you hard-core fans, they are even playing some of the early games in Jacksonville. (Good luck on getting a ticket I hear.)

Quote(s) of the Week:
"We do Muslims no favors by excusing attitudes or practices that ought always to be deemed inexcusable." —Jeff Jacoby

"[T]he Democrats cannot even admit they made a mistake supporting the war—except in that they believed Bush's 'lies.' But how could Bush have lied? How was he to know the intelligence was wrong? Without knowing that, he could not have lied. But the Democrats will not allow for the possibility that the very same intelligence that prompted Clinton to bomb Iraq also informed Bush's decision to topple Saddam." —Jonah Goldberg

"Civil rights cannot include everything that is done by government which benefits particular groups, individually or collectively. The whole case for civil rights is that every American is entitled to them. Civil rights are not about doing special things for special groups." —Thomas Sowell

"We are either a United people, or we are not. If the former, let us, in all maters of general concern act as a nation, which have national objects to promote, and a national character to support. If we are not, let us no longer act a farce by pretending to it." —George Washington

"The essential characteristic of Western civilization that distinguishes it from the arrested and petrified civilizations of the East was and is its concern for freedom from the state. The history of the West, from the age of the Greek polis down to the present-day resistance to socialism, is essentially the history of the fight for liberty against the encroachments of the officeholders." —Ludwig Von Mises