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May
6, 2008 No. 29 Vol. 86
This Week’s Program:
Al Muter Scholarship Fund Presentations
Started by his wife, Ruth, in 1989, as a scholarship trust in memory
of longtime Kiwanian and lifelong Salvation Army corpsman, Al Muter,
the Al Muter Memorial Scholarship Fund made its first award in 1990.
Each year, our Club chooses a winner and three runners-up from a
pool of high school applicants to receive awards of up to $12,000
over four years to cover, in part, the costs of a college education.
Students chosen on the basis of achievement, need and their essays
describing their dreams and ambitions must agree to work part-time
during college and keep their grades above 2.5.
Today, J. C.
Russell will introduce this year’s Al Muter Scholarship recipients
and present their checks to them. Our Club will award $6,600
to four deserving high school seniors, which does not include the
$7,500 that will be provided to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 scholarship
winners as part of their recurring award later this summer.
Dan
Stone will present an overview of past years’ recipients from ’05
forward, and Pastor Louis Murphy will impart an inspirational
message to the students, their family members and to all of us.
Please welcome this
year’s winner, Lana Parker from St. Petersburg High School, and
runners-up Zachary Hungate, who attends St. Petersburg High School
in the International Baccalaureate Program, Violeta Trenkova from
Northeast High School, and Crishuana Williams from Shorecrest Prep.
We look forward to meeting you and wish you all the best in your
college careers and beyond.
Last Week At Kiwanis As Captured By
Roving Reporter Bob Piplitz:
“Biff Baker introduced Shannon
Love, the District Treasurer from Circle K at St. Pete College. Shannon
was very excited about visiting our Club. Biff also introduced another
St. Pete College Circle Club member at the end of the meeting but my
attention span had lapsed and I did not record her name. Tom Nelson did
a pretty shabby job introducing Greg Morgan, and Ron Braun did excellent
work with the Bill Foster (City of St. Pete traffic light timing)
introduction. Bill will present at a later meeting where we can grill
him on traffic lights and such.
In an effort to loosen up his reign of
terror, President Markus allowed Harry Eisnaugle to tell a joke about a
marriage going down the drain. Harry registered a 7.5 on the laugh
meter. Nice job.
Bob Byelick read four letters we received
from Jim Fischer award recipients. In summary, one was named Tequila,
liked big words, wants to write for Vogue, and will be a veterinarian as
a last resort.
Al Karnavicius followed with a call for
donations for the Jim Fischer Birthday Bash on June 14th.
Quench that guilty feeling by signing up to donate right away because we
can expect to get pounded every week by Big Al till we do.
Brett Jahn kicked off the drive for
volunteers for this year’s All Children’s Telethon to take place 5/30 –
6/1. This event benefits kids in dire circumstances, so sign up if at
all possible.
This week’s Finemaster, straight from the
belly of the beast, was Ron Scoggins. In typical bloated government
fashion, Ron assessed mandatory taxes on everyone. Ron assessed a “Rays
luxury tax;” last year Ron handed a “Rays Welfare rebate.” What a
difference a year makes. The Medal of Honor quiz was interesting but a
little long. Ron receives a 7.3 rating.
Happy fines: Debbie Deeb “celebrating” 50
years in real estate only had $5 to show for it, Karen Van DePutte son
recovered from a devastating bike vs. car collision to race again, and
Shannon Love was happy exams are over.
Paul Renker introduced guest speaker Adam
Birdsall, Hospitality Education Manager for Visit St.
Petersburg/Clearwater. His mission is to get more visitors to our
community. The #1 business in Pinellas County is tourism. Over 84,000
residents work in the tourism industry. Tourists bring about $7 billion
in cash to Pinellas each year. Visitors pay about $15 million in fuel
tax and $40 million in the “penny” tax. Adam also mentioned a 5% bed tax
which caused a stir with Pat Biscotti and Jane Baldwin.
The Dali Museum is the area’s #1
attraction. When is the last time you saw a melted head or
melting clock? Too many of us take our area for granted. Without
visitors half our restaurants would close, Tampa Airport would fall
apart, the beaches would be buried under dead fish, and the Pinellas
Trail would be a toll road.
Adam emphasized that we’re all
ambassadors for our area and we should be nice to tourists. Evidently
I’ve been going about this all wrong. Telling tourists to stop clogging
up our roads and restaurants and to go back to Canada is counter-productive.
Oops, my bad. During Q&A, Biff admitted he sent lost Yankee fans looking
for the dome to Yankee Stadium in Tampa. He later lied and said he sent
them to the dome. Gas and housing issues are putting pressure on tourism
and 5,000 hotel rooms turned into empty condos, so smile and pretend you
like tourists and not just their money.
Adam advertises through travel agents,
Hollywood, and the internet to get our message out. Leveraging the weak
dollar, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater has offices in Canada, U.K., the
Northeast, and elsewhere.
The worst question/proposal came from
Dave Abbey on the need for more NASCAR events in St. Pete.
So concludes another fantastic chapter in
the glorious history of our Club.”
Thanks, Bob, we always enjoy seeing
the world through your eyes!
And
From New Richmond, Wisconsin Kiwanis…
Charles
Cadenhead, President-Elect of the New Richmond, Wisconsin Kiwanis Club,
sent Markus a copy of the editorial he wrote for their Bulletin. Among
other things, he discusses the history of our Club as turned up by his
research after a fateful meeting with a member of our Club (unnamed)
that Charlie met at his 45th high school reunion last year.
Even those of us who recently enjoyed the program on our Club’s Kiwanis
history will find much to like about Charlie’s version of which we have
excerpted accomplishments from the 1930s and ‘40s only, below:
“…They
continued on into the 1930s by sponsoring the countywide mosquito
control, donated harmonicas to a school harmonica band, contributed
money and manpower to the organization of a league for better Florida
schools, adopted 20 boys and girls whose parents could not afford to
continue their schooling and furnished them with a portion of their
tuition, furnished clothing and books to indigent students, paid for a
small child’s throat operation, reconditioned playground equipment for
six local schools, supplied lunches for undernourished children in two
local schools, donated $5,000 toward a railroad car load of clothing,
shoes and grapefruit that was sent to the Louisville, Kentucky flood
victims (this was in 1937 depression time dollars), paid for 25,000 half
pints of milk for needy school children and purchased 27 acres of land
for a Kiwanis Youth Camp. About this time, the nation was climbing out
of the Great Depression and headed into World War II and the Kiwanis
Club of St Petersburg didn’t skip a beat. They raised money for bond
drives, equipped recreational centers for service men, deeded 27 acres
of land to the Boy Scouts for a camp, established a farmers market,
donated $3000 for facilities and equipment at a waterfront Park,
collected over 300 duffel bags of clothing and three truckloads of toys
for overseas relief. The list of this club’s accomplishments continues
through the 1950’s to current. They have certainly made a major and
positive impact on their community and the state of Florida.”
Thanks for the memories, Charlie. We’re inspired by the members of this
Club who came before us and who set the bar high to challenge us.
Through Kiwanis, our work and our families, we strive to live with
purpose and serve with humility.
TODAY’S
QUIZ:
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Where would you look for your pollex?
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Actor Anthony LaPaglia stars on which TV
crime drama? A. Cold Case B. Missing C. Without A Trace D. Law
and Order
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Which planet once had a 'Great Dark
Spot' before it disappeared in 1995?
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Of these two animals, the duck-billed
platypus and the black-footed ferret, which is poisonous?
LAST
WEEK’S QUIZ:
1. Fort
DeSoto Beach
was voted “Best Beach” in the St. Pete/Clearwater area in 2008.
2. It
is Hawaii’s state flag that contains a British Union Jack, a
salute to the relationship between Hawaii and Great Britain.
3.
Deinotherium
was a giant extinct mammal
related to the
elephant.
4.
In 1953, the
slogan for L&M cigarettes was “Just What The Doctor Ordered.”
Another “doctor-approved” brand of cigarettes was Camel’s, whose slogan
was "More doctors smoke Camels than any
other cigarette."
PRAYER OF
THE DAY (a prayer for students)
O wise God, I pray that my mind might be
rested, my body energized, and my spirit inspired for the exams I must
take.
Grant me peace and assurance so that I
might do the best I am able, regardless of what that might be.
Be with my fellow students and may I be a
good example to them, offering reassurance and confidence regardless of
how I feel.
May I be honest and insightful, and able
to give a true record of what I have learned. In the end, may any
disappointment be born with grace, and any joy accompanied with
humility. Amen.
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