Kiwanis Club of Historic St. Augustine

Newsletter – 20 August 2009

President’s Message:

I’m back to remind you that our big fund raiser, the pancake breakfast, is coming up in September, more specifically on the 19th of September. I’ll be reminding you of this until the event is over. We have handed out the sheets to be used to get the ads for the placemats. Selling tickets is fine, and pays for the costs we incur. However, the sale of the ads is where we make the profit that allows us to do the various projects for the community. So please, please, please, get out there and get your dry cleaner, your meat man, your hair stylist, your whatever to put some bucks up to place an ad on the placemats used at the breakfast. If you need any help, call me or Chief Hedges. We can show you how to place the ad in the placemat and explain anything to a prospect that you can’t explain. It is up to each and every member to help on this. Do not expect just a few members to do it all. Seriously, all you have to do is ask most of these people, and when they know it is for a good cause, they are happy to do it. It is a write-off for a business.

 

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

26 August 2009: The ARC of the St. Johns will have a ground breaking ceremony of their Therapeutic Learning Center building. Our club donated about $1,000 to this cause last administrative year, so you might want to go out and join in the ceremony. This will be at the ARC’s facility at 2101 ARC Drive at 1600 hours and refreshments will be served.

29 August 2009: Uptown Saturday Night, check out the local galleries uptown on the last Saturday of each month, and taste their food and wine.

4 September 2009: First Friday Art Walk, check out the local galleries downtown and taste their food and wine.

19 September 2009: Annual Pancake Breakfast held at The Allegro

24 September 2009: Annual installation of Officers to be held at The Allegro

 

Guests: Bill Cook was a guest of our new member, Mitch Hall. Also in attendance was our own Gary Bernstein. Gary gets here when he can find time away from work at one of his many jobs. We also had an Interclub from our friends at the noon club: Kevin Van Dyke, Randy Peterson, Walt Weiser and Loren Leuders.

 

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

LAST WEEK: Last week we had the privilege of hearing from yet another Thompson, more specifically, Dr. Jack Thompson. (My questions are two: First, how many more Thompsons are there out there?  2. Is he going to join the club?) He is a Chiropractor, and one with an engineering degree. I felt he gave a very good presentation on the subject of chiropractic care and its differences with regular medical care. To introduce his practice, he is offering an initial consult for a $20 donation to the St. Augustine Girls & Boys Club. That is a good deal. If you don’t have a chiropractor that you use now, check him out.

THIS WEEK: This week we are scheduled to have Mark Bailey, local billboard star, who will discuss the ever changing health care situation which President Obama wants to place the federal government in charge of. Good luck with that, and thanks to Charlie Meyers for getting the speaker.

NEXT WEEK: Your editor is stepping in to fill the spot of Grant Neilson, who left the club before he even had a chance to get a speaker. (Tough reason to leave the club.) At any rate, for you golfers in the crowd (I’m not one) I have found a guy Alex Ortega, who will explain golf made simple, and how the company he works for can help you think that is true.

 

50/50 DRAWING WINNERS: The big winner last week was Charlie Stevens. Mix those tickets real good, and make sure mine is on top. You failed at that last week.

 

NEWS OF NOTE:

The Jags worked hard down in Miami, but came up short. The good news is that they did not come up as short as they did last year. I didn’t have a chance to watch the game (usually don’t watch much pre-season) but the reports from the sports guys was that the defense looked good.

                Brett Favre is back playing in the NFL after his fifth or sixth retirement party. (He loves getting those gold watches. He has a large collection of them.) He has retired and come back more times than Frank Sinatra.

                Speaking of “Look Who’s Back,” the return of Michael Vick was in the news this week.. He is now an Eagle. There is little doubt that PETA will boycott all of his games, but I think it is clear that he has paid his debt to society. The only thing is that there are many, many jobs out there that once you have a felony conviction, you can’t go back to your old job.

                Bob Braden will be talking about the need to get busy on membership. Who have you invited to attend our meetings? We are making a good showing here toward the end of the administrative year, but we still a few more new members to make up to the attrition we have each year in membership.

Quotes You Can Use (or Not):

"How can the economy straighten itself out if it is being systematically skewed by government inference with prices? We are in the mess we're in precisely because of earlier government interference. Easy mortgage terms and guarantees contrived a housing boom and irresponsible lending that could not be sustained. The consequences have shaken the foundation of the financial industry. But instead of freeing the market and allowing the errors to be corrected, the government is seducing the economy into a whole new set of errors. That will lead to the next bust. 'But doesn't the government have to act?' people ask. 'We can't just let financial companies fail!' I say, Why not? Jim Rogers, the successful investor and author, puts it well: 'Why are we bailing out Citibank? Why are 300 million Americans having to pay for Citibank's mistakes? The way the system is supposed to work [is this]: People fail. And then the competent people take over the assets from the failed people, and then you start again with a new stronger base. What we're doing this time is ... taking the assets from the competent people, giving them to the incompetent people, and saying, 'OK, now you can compete with the competent people.' So everybody's weakened: The whole nation is weakened, the whole economy is weakened. That's not the way it's supposed to work." --ABC "20/20" co-anchor John Stossel