|
September 4, 2007 No. 48 Vol. 85
This Week’s Program: Dave Andreychuk, Tampa Bay
Lightning
David John Andreychuk was born on
September 29, 1963 in Hamilton, Ontario. Dave is a former professional
hockey left winger who played in the National Hockey League with the
Buffalo Sabres, the Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Boston
Bruins, Colorado Avalanche and the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Andreychuk played his first NHL
season in 1982-83. He went on to play 11 seasons in Buffalo before being
traded in1993 to the Maple Leafs. He played for the Leafs until the
’95-’96 season when he was traded to the New Jersey Devils where he
stayed until the ‘98-‘99 NHL season. After New Jersey, he had short
stints with the Boston Bruins (1999), the Colorado Avalanche (2000) and
the Buffalo Sabres (2001) before settling in with the Tampa Bay
Lightning from 2001-2002 to 2005-2006.
His best seasons offensively were
in 1992-1993 and 1993-1994 when, with Toronto, he posted 99 points in
each season. The 1993 and 1994 playoffs also saw Andreychuk and the
Maple Leafs advance to the Conference Finals, where they lost to the Los
Angeles Kings and the Vancouver Canucks, respectively.
In the ’01-’02 season, Andreychuk
made a shocking move which would pay dividends in the long run. Rather
than sign with a Stanley Cup contender, he signed with the Tampa Bay
Lightning, to which he was able to bring some much needed veteran
leadership. The Lightning again missed the playoffs, and Andreychuk
refused trades to contenders, stating his work with the team was not
finished. In 2002-2003, the head coach for the Lightning, John
Tortorella, appointed Andreychuk the captain, (succeeding Vincent
Lecavalier who was stripped of the captaincy after the 2000-01 season),
and he continued the leadership role with the team which eventually
would lead to a big reward for the young franchise.
Andreychuk went 22 years without
being on a Stanley Cup championship team, tying the NHL record with Ray
Bourque for the longest career before doing so. In the 2003-2004 NHL
season, Andreychuk and the Lightning defeated the Calgary Flames in
seven games to win the Cup at last, in front of their home crowd.
On January 10, 2006, Andreychuk
was waived by the Lightning, bringing an end to his career. On
October 1, 2006, Andreychuk rejoined the Tampa Bay Lightning as a
Community Representative.
He is one of the highest scoring
left wingers in NHL history. The city of Hamilton has named the Dave
Andreychuk Mountain Arena in his honor. Welcome, Dave! We’re honored to
have you speak to our Club.
Last Week at Kiwanis According To Bob Piplitz
Back again for another swan song writing the “Last
Week at Kiwanis.” I have to think Frank Ranieri needs to get a little
more creative when Cynthia McGowan has car trouble other than Plan A:
dump on Piplitz at the last minute and pretend he asked someone else.
Was that a run on sentence? You bet it was and I have a lot more bad
grammar where that came from thanks to a government education from the
toxic state of New Jersey. At least the first two times I got drafted
into this service Frank provided some paper to write on. This time Frank
took it to a new level and forced me to beg for scraps of paper from
Cathy Swanson. Feel the love!
Lame duck Mitch Cochran was AWOL so Marcus the
travel agent presided and was very mediocre. Ron Scoggins led the song
and made some crack about us stealing “My Country Tis of Thee” from the
British. I was not the only one in the room who didn’t get the point of
that bit of trivia. Ron saved his effort from loathsome with an
excellent non-offensive invocation.
Guests And Visitors And A Whole Lot More
(Piplitz cont’d)
62 members were in attendance and 4 guests. Jack
Collins’ wife of 52 years, Evelyn, was fortunate to sit next to me. I
asked her the secret of being happily married for 52 years. She never
gave me a straight answer. Also Bob Byelick brought two visitors from
PARC, Karen Higgs and Linda Klehammer. We also have a new member,
Vickie Somethingorother. As I’m co-chairing the membership committee
next year maybe I should pay more attention to these things. Are we in
trouble?
Al K. was pushing members to get their directory
information to him. Al brought up Todd Olsen and Steve Cunningham as
examples of members who were holding up the process. Next week: public
flogging.
Ron Scoggins & the Children Priority One committee
reported a successful event at the Ronald McDonald House. Tom Nelson and
Steve Cunningham pulled pork together and some kid had seven helpings.
Ron passed around a thank you card from Ron McD’s house. It never made
it to my table so I can’t report on how heartfelt the gratitude really
was. (dangling participle).
Jane Baldwin announced she was back in the game
again and was later fined by finemaster Dick Koch for public display of
social life. Jane is looking for volunteers and newish books for the
Happy Workers Literacy Fair on September 22. Looking for at least 15
volunteers to help kids have fun and survive Bill Holloway’s Bouncy
House of Terror. So come on out and catch kids before their faces hit
the pavement or help us serve hot dogs.
Bob Byelick gave a check to the visitors from PARC
for $1,500. The PARC people said the funds would be used to purchase
tables and trays and would be used for many, many years. Unfortunately
Bob gets a D- for failing to mention the 50 plus volunteers our club
delivered to the Tampa Bay Blue’s Fest to benefit PARC.
The most dramatic and inspirational moment came
when Maryann Lynch seized the mic and delivered a powerful,
thought-provoking three minute speech that bested the speech given by
the president in the movie “Independence Day” right before Will Smith
blew up the alien mother ship. I still recall every heart rending word:
“ I’m Maryann, I fix up houses and have a kid.” Kudos for staying under
10 seconds. For some reason Lorin Bridge kept shouting something about a
Ferris wheel and had to be restrained.
Marcus dished off a lame blonde joke on Cathy
Swanson. It was something about the mixing up Thursday and Friday with a
profanity innuendo. It received a few charitable laughs and rated half a
chuckle on the Piplitz scale.
Dick Koch was finemaster and was certain to
include his hallmark Kiwanis pin fine. He fined Cathy Swanson for
building a “duck blind” in her front yard. Must be some sort of
homeowner association battle going on because the rest of us were lost.
He had a good dragnet finish that insured everyone helped kids that
day.
Significant happy fines include Bob Byelick and
Scott Boyle $20 each for the Maryann speech. Harry “I snuggle” gave $51
for 51 years of marital bliss.
Last Week’s Program: Piplitz on Heller
Cathy Swanson introduced State Rep Bill Heller.
Bill has an impressive resume which was highlighted in last week’s
Kiwanian. My fingers are getting tired so ask Cynthia McGowan for a
copy.
Bill wasted no time getting into the heart of all
the success the last session of our state congress had in solving
Florida’s problems. Unfortunately since our elected representatives had
no success. Bill spent the time reporting only the failures. To be fair
if there was any success I may have missed it since it was at this time
that Rev. Louis Murphy asked me for my strawberry cheesecake I had been
saving for when my note taking was completed. Now I may have not learned
much in life but when a man of God asks for your cheesecake you had
better give it to him. In Louis’ defense he may have figured that since
I look like I just walked off the set of an Eight Minute Abs commercial,
I probably never eat sweets. Seeing an opening Doug Lamp then took my
iced tea. Please don’t let my note taking get in the way of you guys
enjoying my lunch! I’m sitting alone next week.
Back to failure. On homeowners insurance Bill did
say they managed to put a plan in place that didn’t work as intended and
put our state at greater risk. They followed with a plan to make
Citizen’s insurance more competitive and that also backfired.
Our state reps also determined we have been left
out of the federal pork pie and are putting a plan in place to get moola
from the feds. Success?
The University of Florida is considered our
flagship school and will get more cash from tax dollars. Condolences to
Florida State, USF, & UCF, etc. Could be a success?
PIP was talked about and the need to keep it in
place so our hospitals don’t run out of cash. Another work in progress.
People are 7:1 in favor of keeping PIP and Bill mentioned something
about getting half a loaf.
Property tax was also a hot topic but they had no
time to discuss it in the general session. So they had a special session
and rolled back taxes to 2006. Some of you may have seen about $35 come
your way. Sweet.
The save our homes amendment would cost the school
system $1.5 billion. Gee you mean we could drop below Mississippi to 50th?
Bill admitted the Lottery is a scam and the funds go into the general
budget. Well D’uh!
Help is on the way! A commission that meets every
20 years is going to overhaul the Florida tax system. I’m confident
once we get these go-getters out of the deep freeze or moth balls
they’ll have some real innovative ideas. I have a suggestion. Why not
cut funding to motorcycle cops like the one who got me going a mere 86
mph on the Howard Frankland today. Excuse me but aren’t there still
murderers and crack heads running around?
Another “success” was to move the Florida primary
up to February. This also resulted in disaster when the Democratic
National Committee threatened not to show up. Bill used the term “chaos”
to describe the current standoff. Gee, how can I give you guys more tax
dollars to blow?
We also learned Bill goes to Derby Lanes for the
food. Yeah, right. And Jim Beech gets Playboy for the articles. OK that
last one may have crossed the line and was made up. I’m tired and hungry
and now disturbed about the fiscal condition of Florida. It was a
terrific program. Bill was an excellent presenter and I look forward to
seeing him again. Kudos, Program Committee!!!
Please send complaints to Frank Ranieri so you can
write this the next time Cynthia has car trouble.
"The only difference
between this and Custer's last stand was Custer didn't have to look at
the tape afterwards". -
Terry Crisp, the ex-coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, after a 10-0 loss
to the Calgary Flames.
What’s Happening?
New Friends
Please welcome past guests and new members, Bret
Jahn, sponsored by Harry Eisnaugle, and Ramona Hunter, sponsored by
Kathy Condon. Ramona’s our first banker in a long time that does not
work on 4th Street! Bret can be reached at
bjahn@bay-cities-bank.com and Ramona atRHunter@colonialbank.com.
Invite them to sit at your table and make some new friends.
Last Chance To Be Somebody
Al Karnavicius passed out information update
sheets for our updates or revisions before the new Kiwanis Directory
comes out. Laggers are holding up the process! Get yours in today or you
may miss out on valuable calls and emails. Info out of date? Picture
like Lindsay Lohan’s mug shots? Edit sheets will be available for the
last time at today’s meeting. Many of us rely on the directory to stay
in touch, so please ensure that your entry is accurate and your picture
worthy of Match.com.
Kiwanis Extends Its Reach Heart To Heart
Markus Mittermayr received the following
letter:
Greetings from Ukraine
I am the president new Kiwanis club in Ukraine
Lora Pavlenko
We shall have presentation in October, 13th It
is the first Kiwanis in Ukraine.
We prepared for opening club almost year. At
opening club we shall be glad to invite the members of Kiwanis from
other countries
We have a good group of people which will be
members of this club.
We have received the information about the
activity of Kiwanis International.
I am glad that we shall a part of the big
family the
Kiwanis club. I and my group very much want to learn
more about the meetings which carry out in other groups, to have
dialogue. Also we with pleasure shall be sisterly group. If you are
interested in dialogue, an exchange of the information of our countries,
traditions, about work which do. We shall be glad. Also it will help us
to build our work and group. I shall be grateful for the answer
Lora Pavlenko
Markus answered her on behalf of our Club and
received this reply:
Hello Markus
Thanks for your letter
I was glad to hear that we will have a
dialogue.
I wish to tell about myself and about our club.
Our club will locate in Kiev the capital of
Ukraine.
My name is Lora Pavlenko. Im a teacher by
education and philologist. My husband are journalist.
We have the daughter Renata. She is 23. She is
a lawyer.
In February I have read the article about
Kiwanis club. And also one woman has told that she visitedKiwanis in
America. She has told about the important purpose of this club to serve
people. All our life we lifted people who had physical problems and we
helped them to understand that they are necessary for society.
It always was in our hearts. I and my husband
we have group of people with which spend social projects in Ukraine..
In our team teenagers which had suffered from
violence which used to live on the street, young people from poor
families. Now them already 30 persons.
We have created drama theatre which makes
programs for children's homes, for the centers where there lives an
invalid children. All teenagers are volunteers.
After information which we have received about
Kiwanis club we have invited people who has the same loving hearts. For
all was a pleasure to be a part of the big family of Kiwanis.
We have received the answer from the European
club. They has received all our documents and also checks of payment. In
October, 13th we shall have official presentation of Ukrainian Kiwanis
in Kiev. There will arrive representatives of several clubs from America
and also the representative from the European office.
We now start to do first steps. For the
Ukrainian people opening of such club the big miracle. We have not
enough clubs which care in other people. The country now only is under
construction, social programs are not created. People are not protected
by the law. For this reason my heart and hearts of all members of club
have the big desire really to care of those who weak and are not
protected. We would want that our club in the future has been officially
registered with Department Justice of Ukraine.
It will enable us to do more ability for
activity.
We have already begun the work at directions in
which to work. About this I shall write in the following letter.
I and my people we shall be glad if you awake
with our sisterly club. You have more experience in work.
I shall be grateful for the answer.
Lora Pavlenko.
It just goes to show that there are good-hearted
people everywhere who are drawn to the mission and goals of Kiwanis. We
have much to be proud of as Kiwanians and our Clubs are an inspiration
to others around the world who seek out organized ways to help children
and families. We wish Ms. Pavlenko and her Club members all the best. A
correspondence with their Ukrainian Club could teach us a lot.
Big Brother Or Stalker?
Trent Shadwick is looking for you. Make
sure you sign in with him at every Kiwanis luncheon. Or else.
TODAY’S QUIZ:
- Where does the word “puck” come from and why
are pucks kept frozen at games?
- September is Native American Month. Which
Native American tribe played a significant role in Britain's victory
over France for control of North America?
- Why do mosquitos dislike citronella?
- What is the rarest blood type in the world?
LAST WEEK’S QUIZ:
1. Like many states, Florida had not until
recently specifically adopted an official state motto. Rather, In God
We Trust had come to be accepted as the motto of Florida as an
element of the Great Seal of the State of Florida. On June 22,
2006, however, Governor Jeb Bush signed House Bill no. 1145 adopting
In God We Trust as the official state motto of Florida,
effective July 1, 2006.
2. The three primary colors are red, blue and
yellow. The three secondary colors are orange, green and purple.
Make a note of it!
3. Crocodiles swallow large stones to use
as ballast while diving. No word on what they do with them at other
times.
4. Damascus is the oldest, continuously
inhabited city in existence. Excavations at Tell Ramad on the outskirts
of the city have demonstrated that Damascus has been inhabited as early
as 8,000 to 10,000 BC.
PRAYER OF THE DAY A Coach’s Prayer
As we train our teams, we pray that God prepare
their hearts for the specific role they will play in serving others. We
pray for their safety, for their courage and belief in themselves and
for them to know that there are no winners or losers in God’s eyes.
Amen. |
