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July 29, 2008 No. 41 Vol. 86
This Week at Kiwanis: Field trip
to St. Museum of Fine Arts
The Museum of Fine Arts, located at
255
Beach Dr. N.E. in St. Petersburg
was founded by Margaret Acheson Stuart (1896-1980) and reflects her
vision of providing outstanding examples of world art in an inviting,
elegant setting. The Museum opened to the public in 1965. The purpose of
the Museum is to increase and diffuse knowledge and appreciation of art,
to collect and preserve objects of artistic interest and merit, to
protect works of art, to provide facilities for research, and to offer
instruction and opportunities for aesthetic enjoyment of art. The Museum
is dedicated to serving all people by pursuing excellence in art from
antiquity to the present through collection, exhibitions, and education
for its diverse audiences.
Last Week at Kiwanis:
Harvey Ford announced an Inter Club
opportunity on July 31st. More information to follow.
New member Gary Keller was introduced by
President Markus and his sponsor Doug Lampe.
Hal Wells as finemaster, gave a “state of
the Kiwanis”, as he focused his wrath on our various committees.
Kiwanian of the Day, Al Karnavicius,
introduced Terry Smiljanich, chairman of the Tampa Bay Skeptics, Terry,
born at MacDill AFB, has lived in the Tampa Bay area all his life.
After graduating from the University of Florida, Terry began his career
as a federal prosecutor in Tampa, and now is an attorney in Tampa.
The Tampa Bay Skeptics started in 1988
and have quarterly meetings as well as a newsletter. For the past 20
years, the Skeptics have offered $1,000.00 to anyone that convinces
their members of a paranormal experience. So far, their offer has not
been cashed in.
There are two skeptical principles:
- Burden of proof
- Extraordinary
claims require extraordinary proof
Among favorite
topics discussed at the skeptics meetings are fortune tellers,psychics,
talking to the dead, illusionist, magicians, UFO’s, monster, and New Age
or alternative medicines. Terry urges us as Kiwanians to stress critical
thinking skills for children and to avoid scams, fraud, and the like.
At the question and answer segment, Terry
explained the Devil’s Triangle, the Phoenix Light and other paranormal
episodes. He pointed out that the Skeptics do not discuss religious
issues. Terry’s most unusual skeptic investigation was about a man with
a crazy rod that claimed he could find precious metals. He and his
instrument were debunked by the skeptics.
Trivia Questions
- Name the player(s)
who hold(s) the career records for assist and steals in the NBA?
2. Which four
states create the four corners?
- What is the state
bird of Utah?
- The Glen Canyon
Dam creates what lake? In what state(s) is the lake located?
Thank you letter from Grant Recipient
Dr. Ann Steele
Hello to all the
wonderful Kiwanians!!!!
I would like to
thank you all so very much for your graciousness, your kindness, your
generosity and incredible support of our efforts to help alleviate the
suffering of the children we serve in Cardiology and in the Cardiac
Transplant Program at All Children’s Hospital.
I cannot tell you
how very honored I am to join hands and hearts with you all in this
initiative. You have no idea how much help you have extended to our
cardiac children…these are little ones, some of which are born with
hearts so deformed that they could not even live without a transplant
within the first days of their lives (the youngest child transplanted at
ACH was two days old) ...and other children whose disease or heart
defects force them to live their little lives watching and only dreaming
of all the things that they cannot ever do – running, jumping, learning
to ride a bike, going on an outing without being in a wheelchair,
walking across a room without becoming breathless – conditions which
just keep getting worse until they either die of heart failure or are
placed on the transplant list and by a miracle, get that new heart that
changes their lives!
It is our goal to
alleviate their suffering - to put every child on their own transplant
list – their own stem cell transplant list! – with accessible cardiac
stem cells that have the power to strengthen failing hearts, to heal and
replace lost heart muscle and to make every heart, for every child, a
perfect heart.
For me, to
receive the Kiwanis Young Children Priority One Initiative Grant to help
these children means so very much and makes such a difference. For our
effort to be recognized by such a fine group as the Kiwanis is a huge
honor for my team. I can guarantee that your gift from the heart will
truly connect with the hearts of our children. As I said, we will be
able to include four additional children in this study who otherwise
could not be included because, very honestly, we simply lacked the
funds. Similar to all of you, everyone on my team volunteers their
expertise to change the world of these children…our team is a meeting of
minds with one vision and we are determined and dedicated – we are,
simply stated, very driven “Can-Do” folks....this idea was born of a
dream, born of acute need, born of a refusal to accept that children
should die of a disease or defect before they have ever lived.
These kids are
so, so brave, they are true Heroes in every sense of the word. I will
share a short story of one of these children facing the count-down
moments prior to transplant ….he asked the nurse to give him a pencil
and paper – and unknown to his parents, he wrote a letter to them,
thanking them for the life and love they had given him, told them to
please not be sad if he died during the surgery but if this happened
just know that he loved them for all the things they did to make his
life complete through all the years of illness…he felt wanted and
loved…he told them he was very scared but that he wanted to take this
chance to have a new heart …and to him, that chance was worth risking
death.
I can tell you
that the fear that child felt in the operating room was reflected in the
huge, silent tears rolling down his cheeks as the anaesthetist put him
to sleep to receive his new heart …and, the happy ending is that the
child made it through his transplant with flying colors….and he is one
of the children in our program!
So, as you see,
it is very hard to truly describe how much good your gift will do…our
children will live that good you have made possible.....please just know
that by your generosity that you are playing a hugely significant role
in children’s lives by reaching out to help our cardiac kids……
In closing, I can
only say, humbly and sincerely, an inadequate thank you so very much
from all of us!!!!
God Bless you
all!
Kindest Regards,
Dr. Ann Steele
All Children's
Hospital
Dept. of
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
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