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February 26, 2008 No. 19 Vol. 86
This Week’s Program:
Matt Silverman, President, Tampa Bay Rays
As President of the
Tampa Bay Rays, Matt Silverman is responsible for leading the
organization's daily operations. He became President in October of 2005
after serving as Vice President of Planning and Development for two
years.
Prior to joining the Rays full-time, Silverman worked closely with
Stuart Sternberg to orchestrate Sternberg's purchase of a controlling
interest in the franchise.
Silverman's previous experience includes several years at The Goldman
Sachs Group Inc., in its Merchant Banking Division and Firmwide Strategy
Group. During this period, in which he first worked with Sternberg,
Silverman worked on a variety of merger and acquisition opportunities
across diversified industries. While with the firm, Silverman also
co-founded and served as CFO for a real estate software company.
A lifelong baseball fan, Silverman also enjoys running and writing in
his free time. He received a bachelor of economics degree from Harvard
University. A native of Dallas, he resides in Tampa. He is a member of
the board of the Pinellas Education Foundation and the Hillsborough
Education Foundation and serves as the Rays board member for the Tampa
Bay Partnership.
Welcome back, Matt.
We’re interested to hear about the season and the plans for a new
stadium.
Last Week’s Program
Cliff Smith,
Assistant Director, Pinellas County Health and Human Services
Introduced by
Kiwanian-of-the-Day Cathy Swanson, Mr. Smith presented information on
the homeless population in Pinellas County through some rather startling
statistics. The Pinellas County Department of Health and Human Services
counted 5,195 homeless people in Pinellas County as of the end of
January, up from a little over 1,500 in 2000. Mr. Smith attributes the
jump largely to more sophisticated techniques of counting than in the
past. There is some fluctuation based on economic conditions and on
services available in one area or another, but some is just a reflection
of a growing city and population. Of the 5,195, about 1,200 live on the
streets, the other 4,000 being individuals and families living in cars
or temporarily camped out with friends or family members, but unable to
maintain a residence by themselves. The great majority of homeless
people in Pinellas County are working poor in low-wage jobs who cannot
make enough money to meet the minimum monthly expense of a rental,
utilities and groceries.
Mr. Smith confirmed
that at least 2/3 of the homeless population has mental health or
substance abuse disabilities which makes it hard to solve panhandling,
public urination and the like with simplistic measures. Equally
disturbing is their finding that 24% of homeless are veterans, primarily
of the Viet Nam War, 20% are families, 18.5% are children, including
runaways, and nearly 8% are senior citizens. 50% have lived in Pinellas
County at least 5 years and 75% have lived here more than one year. He
brought home the point that most of the homeless don’t fit people’s
stereotypes of them and that we have a responsibility to help the
County’s downtrodden, most of whom are very young, very old or unable to
function in the day-to-day world to which we’re accustomed. People on
the streets face hunger, violence, and illnesses due to exposure.
Available shelters and beds are few, serving less than 1,000 of the
5,000+ who need them.
The Pinellas County
Department of Health and Human Services provides health care and other
essential human services to disadvantaged Pinellas County residents to
assist them in reaching their maximum potential for self-sufficiency. In
addition, Mr. Smith spoke very favorably about Pinellas Hope, a
community program managed by Catholic Charities to provide shelter and
services. The goals of programs like these are to reduce the numbers of
street homeless people, provide medical and psychiatric care to those
who need either or both and to lessen the incidence of violence against
this very vulnerable population.
Guests and Visitors
Guests included Eddie
Lee, former Lt. Governor, who commended our Club for the work we do that
resulted in our having received a Division award, Bernie Lodge’s
son Stephen and four Key Club members. Welcome, all! You always enrich
us with your presence.
Kiwanian Of The Week
We’re including a new feature to help members new and old get to know
each other better. A short biographical portrait and a picture of a
fellow Kiwanian will appear in each issue as we receive them.
Name: Al Karnavicius
Company and Title: Bayprint, President
Joined Kiwanis because? Community involvement, flexible
time requirements
Your single favorite Kiwanis experience/event?
International Convention in Hawaii!
Tell us about your family, including pets. Wife &
Business partner Nancy, 2 dogs: Sally & Trudy
Perfect day away from work? On the golf course with good
friends
Best vacation ever? One-week cooking school in Tuscany
Last book you read or favorite movie? God’s Debris & The
Religion War, Scott Adams
Sports or art walks? BOTH!
Beach or mountains? BOTH!
One thing most people don’t know about you? I used to
sell used cars for Avis
Quote to live by? Anything is Possible
If you were on Kiwanis Survivor, who would you vote off
the island? Tough question, not sure…lots of options!
What’s Happening?
In Memory Of
Filomena Murphy
JC Russell let
us know last week’s dates and times for the services held for Kiwanian
Louis Murphy’s late wife, Filomena. The Murphy family requests
that anyone who wishes to do something in Mrs. Murphy’s memory donate to
Sistahs Surviving Breast Cancer. Sistahs Surviving Breast Cancer meets
at 6:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at Mount Zion Progressive
Baptist Church, 955 20th St. S, St. Petersburg. To reach them, call
Jackie Brown at (727) 365-1678 or go to
www.myspace.com/sistahssurvivingbc for more information.
Golf To Help
Lithuanian Children Or Just To Drink The Beer
Whether you’re
motivated by the cause or just shamelessly self-interested, plan to
participate in the Annual Lithuanian Open Golf Tournament to be held on
Monday, March 10. Get a flyer, the location and all other pertinent
information from our favorite Lithuanian, Big Al Karnavicius, organizer,
at Tuesday’s meeting or find him at
www.bayprintonline.com. He promises Lithuanian beer on the course to
those who enjoy that lethal brew. More importantly, proceeds (last year
nearly $5,000) go to provide much needed services and programs to
Lithuanian children, just one more way Kiwanians serve the children of
the world.
4th
Annual Jim Fischer Birthday Bash
Mark your calendar on
June 14th to attend our annual Jim Fischer Birthday Bash, a
fundraiser that raises college scholarship money for high performing
grade-schoolers and middle-schoolers from low-income families. Part of
the Pinellas Education Foundation and Mayor Rick Baker's Doorway
Scholarship Program, students are selected during Grades 4-9 by the
Pinellas Education Foundation based on financial need, good grades and
attendance. If they maintain that status through graduation from high
school, they receive free college tuition. Please save the date and plan
to attend the Birthday Bash.
Got Goodies?
Bob Byelick is
looking for goody bag items for the golfers who’ll compete in the Jim
Fischer Golf Tournament on April 14th. If you have company
promotional items, donate a hundred of them to this good cause.
Special Olympics
Volunteers Welcome and Needed
Bob Piplitz told
us that only about a dozen people have signed up to be volunteers for
the Special Olympics community service event coming up on Saturday,
March 1. See Bob, Cynthia Mulligan or Pat Biscotti at
Tuesday’s meeting for the 411 on this worthwhile event!
TODAY’S QUIZ:
1. With what explorer did
cows come to America?
2.
The Bourne Identity
is a spy fiction thriller by Robert Ludlum about an amnesiac who must
discover who he is. At the beginning of the story the protagonist is
found floating in which sea with several bullet wounds?
3. At the top of the second,
you hear the announcer talking about "the hot corner." On the baseball
diamond, what area is known as the hot corner?
4. We live in the galaxy
called “The Milky Way.” How many galaxies are there in the universe? A.
4,500 B. 50 billion C. 200 million
LAST WEEK’S
QUIZ:
1. Teenagers aging out of
foster care are one of the fastest growing populations of the
homeless.
2. In the state of
Virginia, Presidents’ Day is legally known as
George Washington
Day.
3. Victoria Claflin
Woodhull was the first woman to
be nominated, campaign and run for President, in 1872. She was
nominated by the Women’s National Equal Rights Party.
4. Neophobia,
or new-object-fear, makes rats extremely cautious about changes
in its territory. It takes several days before a rat will accept a new
object as part of its territory.
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Lord, I have feared
growing older, but I know that my life is in your hands.
Let me keep my eyes upon you and my hands busy with your work.
And let me never be cast aside, but always find things to do
so that I may praise you and praise you, my faithful God.
Amen.
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