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Tuesday, November 21, 2006 No. 8 Vol. 85
Today’s Speaker: Colonel John M. Bate
National Chief Secretary for the United States
of America, Salvation Army, Retired
Our speaker today comes to us from Clearwater by
way of New Zealand, Jamaica, Rhodesia, Spain, Chile, Peru and a host of
other countries where he and his wife worked on behalf of the Salvation
Army to bring financial and emotional aid, disaster relief services and
the Gospel of Jesus to communities around the world. He and his wife,
Colonel Valda Bate, National Secretary for Women’s Organizations in the
U.S., retired at the end of 1999 after completing almost forty-one years
of active service, living in and visiting on official business more than
seventy countries.
Born in Napier, New Zealand, John Bate attended
Victoria University in Wellington City. He married Valda Hart, of Foxton,
in 1958, shortly before entering the Training College, the institution
responsible for the training of officer-cadets for ministry in the
Salvation Army.
Over the course of a dozen years, the couple held a
corps appointment in New Zealand at Naenae, with the Kingston Central
Corps in Jamaica and back to New Zealand where Colonel John Bate served
as Private Secretary to the territorial commanders of that period. They
went from there to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and to Madrid, Spain to open
a Salvation Army in that city. The Colonel became Director of
Information Services at International Headquarters, during which he
hosted a weekly program on the BBC, which became known nationally.
After a number of high-level appointments, the
Bates were sent to South America West, which covered Chile, Peru,
Bolivia and Ecuador and then to South America East to Argentina, Uruguay
and Paraguay.
In 1991, Mrs. Bate’s health required them to leave
South America. They transferred to Canada, and in 1993, the United
States. Finally, they were appointed to National Headquarters in
Alexandria, VA, from which they have retired.
The Bates' have two grown children, a daughter
Beverley in London and a son, Alastair in Montclair, NJ. Please welcome
Colonel John Bates! We look forward to his stories of globe-trotting in
the name of service.
What’s Happening?
Next Week…Community Service Meeting Notice
Only one more week till the Community Service
Meeting to plan next year’s community service projects. Please plan to
attend this one-time-only-this-year meeting to be held at the home of
Jane Baldwin -- 922 39th Avenue NE, St. Petersburg, 5:30-6:30 pm on
Tuesday, November 28th. Food and drinks will be provided.
Please RSVP by e-mail to
Robert_Piplitz@ML.com.
‘Tis The Season, Kiwanis-Style!
Space is limited at our upcoming holiday party, a
progressive dinner to be held Saturday, December 9th, so sign
up and purchase your tickets now. At just $45 per person, it’s a steal
of a meal and the frivolity is free of charge. Join your friends for the
following festivities:
5:00 – 6:15 p.m. Drinks and Appetizers hosted
by Scott and Terri Boyle
6:45 – 8:15 p.m. Dinner hosted by Steve and
Charlene Koch
8:30 p.m. till ? Dessert hosted by Harvey and
Kathleen Ford
Cynthia Mulligan says: “If you are planning
to attend this shindig, please give a check for $45 per person to either
Lorin Bridge (payable to "Victoria's Secret Copyright Infringement
Defense Fund") or to Cynthia Mulligan (payable to "Kiwanis Club of St.
Petersburg"), as soon as possible!”
Ron Scoggins invited us to help out with the
three upcoming projects of the Young Children Priority One Committee:
Christmas Angels Program needs gifts to provide a happy holiday for
100 foster children, Help A Child needs volunteers on Friday,
December 16th, to help with gift wrapping and toy assembly,
and Dr. Ron O’Neil is conducting a Healthy Smile event for 40
children on Saturday, December 9th and needs volunteers to
help with the kids.
Bell Ringers
Needed - Bell ringers are
needed to staff the Salvation Army kettle on December 21. One hour slots
are available beginning at 10 a.m. through 8 p.m. These are two person
shifts. The kettle will be in front of Publix at the Northeast Shopping
Center.
Also, this is the
perfect time to make that year-end donation to the Salvation Army.
This year, we want to be #1 in collections and beat the St. Pete Rotary
Club. For those willing to contribute, yet unable to participate on
the 21st, bring your check payable to the Salvation Army to the Tuesday
meeting on December 19th. J. C. Russell and Skip Carr will be
available to collect them for placement in the Kettle on the 21st. "Go
Kiwanis, beat Rotary!"
Cowboy Grace “Bless this
food and us that eats it.”
QUOTE - “What we're really talking about is
a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one
diets. I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?”
--Erma Bombeck
LAST WEEK AT KIWANIS
Marc Topkin, Baseball Editor for the Times,
seemed both surprised and pleased when we sang “Happy Birthday” to
him and Bob Byelick presented him with our Kiwanis-signed
baseball. We’re almost sure he doesn’t have another one like it at home!
The World Series garnered a lot of criticism and
Marc presented what he believes are the reasons for that disgruntlement,
reminding us that things look different “from the inside” than they do
to the casual fan. While the last World Series was a let-down, Topkin
feels this was true in part because of the measures that have been taken
to ensure a level playing field. The Cardinals were not a top-rated team
– 12 teams had more wins – and compelling stories of the Cardinals and
the Tigers were not well-known nationally. The Tigers didn’t play the
week before the Series due to scheduling issues beyond their control,
but all of this added up to a flat game since they had not been allowed
to build up the head of steam that makes for excitement and uncertainty
during the Series. Parity issues damped enthusiasm in this case,
because, Topkin explained, psychologically, fans need a dominant team to
hate, and there was no focus, good or bad, on the teams and players in
that match-up. Topkin believes that there is so much focus on
high-profile New York teams, that when a lesser-touted team gets to the
World Series, people don’t feel as much allegiance and strong rivalries
build excitement.
During the question and answer period, Topkin
suggested that two things hurting the Devil Rays are one, the lack of
core veteran players that guide younger teammates and newcomers, and,
two, a miscalculation on the part of the new management as to how much
of the long cycle of building a strong, consistent team fans are willing
to sit through. The first year put in by the new management was not the
first year for the fans. The fans were promised a stable, veteran team
and it remains to be seen whether management will lose credibility by
trading Carl Crawford with no “stars” lined up to take his place or
whether a more closely bonded team with more experience will emerge from
the current one which hasn’t gelled to this point.
Guests and Visitors We
welcomed five guests to our luncheon last week, in addition to our
speaker Marc Topkin. Jim Beach welcomed Division 13 Lt.
Governor Eddie Lee, a frequent visitor to our Club. Bill Allard
brought with him Reverend Fred Clare from Unity Church, Bob
Byelick invited guests Mayor Rick Baker and Dr. Sarah Lind,
Mayor’s Deputy for Schools. Clint Anderson spoke to Bruce
McKelvey recently and decided to show up and check us out! Welcome,
friends. We hope to see you at another luncheon soon.
Roster Additions New
members J. B. Gaskins, Jeffrey Francis and Maryann Lynch
were formally inducted Tuesday. Each will now receive a Kiwanis apron
for signatures. We’re proud you have selected Kiwanis as your civic
affiliation and look forward to getting to know you!
And Scholarship Additions
Bob Byelick spoke to us about the progress that’s been made regarding
the Jim Fischer Scholarship Fund. Working in conjunction with the Mayor
and the Pinellas Education Foundation’s Doorways Program, we have set
more ambitious goals for fundraising and scholarships. This year we are
proud to announce that Kiwanis has funded 21 additional students, in
part because of a match opportunity our efforts qualified for. We now
have two classrooms of scholarship recipients. The Mayor and Dr. Lind
spoke to the benefits of such future scholarships to qualified sixth
graders on free or reduced lunch and stated that he was raising his goal
to 125 scholarshipped students a year from last year’s 100.
TODAY’S QUIZ
- When and by whom was the first national
Thanksgiving Day proclaimed?
- The governor of which state refused to issue a
Thanksgiving Day proclamation because he felt it was a “damned
Yankee institution anyway?”
- Before being harvested and sold, a cranberry
must bounce how high to ensure that it isn’t too ripe?
- The first Thanksgiving football game was
started in 1934 by what team?
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Dear God, We Are
Gathered Here,
To Give Thanks For The Food
You Have Set Before Us.
We Also Give Thanks For This
Beautiful Day,
And the Circle Of Friends,
And the Opportunity To Be Together.
May God's Blessing, Peace And Love
Rest Upon Our Tables,
Forever In God's Light.
LAST WEEK’S QUIZ:
1. Since Neptune's discovery in 1846, it
has made about ¾ of a revolution around the sun.
2. The animal responsible for the most
human deaths in the world is the mosquito. (Alright, so it’s not
strictly an ‘animal.’ It still beat out pitbulls, lions, tigers and
bears – oh, my!).
3. The first interracial kiss on TV took
place Nov. 22, 1968 between Captain James T. Kirk (William
Shatner) and Lt.Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) on an episode of "Star
Trek."
4. Baseball's National League was born in
1876. Eight competing baseball teams met in New York City's Grand
Central Hotel. The eight original cities with teams were Boston,
Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Louisville and
Hartford.
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