Kiwanis Club of Historic St. Augustine

Newsletter – 19 April 2007

President’s Message:

We inducted another member to our conspiracy plotters. Wayne Howell brought in a friend, Paul Linser, and I have it on good authority that he is not his only friend. Paul is employed at The Whitney Lab (there is a much longer official name that your Editor does not know) which is located at Marineland. The Lab is associated with the University of Florida (we won’t that against him) and the Lab studies marine life in all its many forms. They just completed a new facility at Marineland, and we should go visit it as a club. If that is not possible, then visit when you have time and they will let you in. Paul is also the Executive Director of the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival. As we have announced in the Coming Events section of this newsletter for the last few weeks, the Festival is coming up in couple of weeks. It just gets better every year, so make sure you support the Festival. Bob Braden, who is in charge of the beer concession, tells us that Kiwanians will get a deal. (He won’t check your ID if he knows you!)

 

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

28 April 2007: Uptown Saturday Night, check out the local galleries uptown on the last Saturday of each month, and taste their food and wine.

30 April 2007: The Noon Club is sponsoring their annual golf tournament at Marsh Creek. Shotgun Start is at noon. The price is $100 per person or $375 per foursome. I’m not a golfer, but many in our club are, so go and support another Kiwanis project. You’ll know most of the folks there. Prizes and lunch are included.

4 May 2007: First Friday Art Walk, check out the local galleries downtown and taste their food and wine.

May 4 -6, 2007: The annual Gamble Rogers Folk Festival. The newly renovated amphitheatre on the island on A1A is the venue. For details see: www.gamblefest.com 

19 May 2007: Another yard sale will be had by our club. Tim and Jolande Chiu have generously agreed to allow us to hold the sale at their hardware store parking lot as we did last time. Proceeds will go toward our pledge of assistance to the Boys and Girls Club Building Fund. Please call Tim at 471- 9685 to arrange delivery of your items to the site for storage.

22 May 2007: The annual Ag Day at the Ag Center. The service clubs started this some years ago, and the Farmer of the Year is named and honored along with agriculture in the county, of which there is less each year. This will be a luncheon at the Ag Center, and we usually cancel our regular meeting for that week.

 

Guests: Doug Evans was the guest of Dave Thompson for a return visit. That usually means that he is contemplating becoming a member. Mark Shelley had as his guest, Jim Matheson. I do believe that this is a repeat performance also.

 

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

LAST WEEK: Human and Spiritual Values monthly program was handled by the aforementioned Mark Shelley, who introduced the youth pastor at Turning Point Baptist Church, Kevin Taylor. Kevin also serves as the SAHS football team chaplain. He gave us a very good presentation. He is obviously very dedicated to his work. He told us how his father had been such an example to him, and how he hoped to pass this on to the student athletes. (He looked like a good candidate for membership. Did anyone ask him?)

THIS WEEK: Barney Salzberg, will introduce Tom & Iwona Pietrucha, who are the owners of the Rockin’ Bean Coffee Shop. After they get through teaching us how to pronounce their name, I’m hoping they will fill us in on my favorite beverage, bourbon. No, coffee. I think we also have the Student of the Month this week.

NEXT WEEK: Wayne Howell has informed me that he has lined up Katie Prevatt, from the Red Cross.

 

⅓-⅓-⅓ DRAWING WINNERS: The winning tickets were drawn and the winners were Jake Thompson and Frank Nemec. Congrats to both. Remember to mix those tickets well (put mine on top), and to buy your tickets early and often.

 

Late Breaking News:

Mark Shelley advised that the athletic department at SAHS was holding a fund raiser on 5 May to raise funds to refurbish the weight room at the school, see Mark for the details.

                Not much news this week, all we have heard about for days is the shooting at Virginia Tech. I don’t know about the other news networks, but Fox News must be spending several hundred thousand dollars a day to report rumors. Come on guys, does every talking head have to be on campus? On Wednesday, the school was closed, no classes for the rest of the week, so there were very few residents to interview. The talking heads were forced to interview another talking head from their own network. Is there any surprise that there was some sort of bomb scare? Someone wanted to have the national TV reporting on something he did, and he could watch the emergency response teams spring to life again. Brit Hume hasn’t even had the Panel on for two days. Surely there is more to talk about than this. Talk about it when you KNOW something. Passing on rumor and innuendo is as bad as the tabloid newspapers at the supermarket checkout lines.

                Also be prepared to fight the new demand for gun control that is already starting. Part of the problem is gun control. If folks were permitted to carry concealed on campus, the death toll would probably have been smaller. We have developed these “gun free” zones, which is just an invitation to some nut to come and start shooting. He can go in and start shooting and he knows there will be no opposition. From what has been reported, a lot of people knew this kid was a “nut” and still nothing could be done. That is the area we need to start to looking at.

 

Quote(s) of the Week:
“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” —George Washington

“Let each man resolve to be victorious, and that the right of self-government, liberty, and peace shall find him a defender.” —Robert E. Lee
“I am entirely persuaded that the American public is more reasonable, restrained and mature than most of the broadcast industry’s planners believe.” —Edward R. Murrow