November 12, 2003

 

Leon, the Club's exalted high muckety muck, called the members and guests to order at 12:20 PM with a gong of the sacred Club bell.  "Splash" North, the man formerly known as "Chip", led the Pledge and Dr. Jerry delivered still another inspirational invocation prompting some to wonder out loud if his doctorate is not in divinity. 

 The troops returned Sunday afternoon from the annual Arcadia Peace River outing.  Final count was forty-one brave souls.  While the East Coast got pounded with record rains this weekend there was nary a drop to be felt on the West Coast.  In fact, the sky was so clear Saturday evening that we viewed the entire eclipse of the moon while enjoying the camp fire.  There were, of course, things that we did not want to see (John Ghee and his golden shower) or hear (Layne having to "pump his up") but there were also lessons in courage and fortitude (Leon leading the charge while riding the porcelain pony).  Dan Dowd's trip began with a chance encounter between Bambi and his auto (the auto won) but this year's wiener award has to go to Splash North who fell out of his canoe twice never spilling one drop of his beer.  Special kudos to Chef Layne Heise and all his assistant cooks for the fabulous chow, to Judy Sullivan for the pre-trip shopping and organizing, to Jim Balistreri for the use of the company truck, to Jack Krutek, Coach Linville and Leon Banks for the heavy lifting in loading and unloading the truck and for all who pitched in to make this another great time.  We will be doing it again next year, the first weekend in November, so save the date now.

 The 150 tickets are being distributed to Club members this week.  They were delayed in order to get our new community service partner Wachovia Bank's logo on them.  Special thanks to Bobbi Banks for the print job on the tickets.  Bobbi has also prepared a program for the event which is also first class.  Lets get the tickets sold so we have an early sellout.  Remember the great band we had last year?   Its back and will play throughout the evening.  Don Parrish is still looking for silent auction items.  Remember this is our profit center for the evening.  John Ghee has donated a half day fishing trip on the Ghee Whiz with Larry Crismond as his first mate or a half day cruise on the Intracoastal with lunch - limit four with either outing.  If you don’t have a client, customer or patient that can donate something, make a basket.   Richard and Brenda Franco always put together a couple of rum baskets and Judy Sullivan will be making a chip and dip basket.  They don’t have to be elaborate, just attractive and maybe a bit imaginative.  Give Don a call if you need some suggestions.

 This Saturday is the Club's workday with Habitat for Humanity.  If you want to join the work crew, we will be falling in and forming up in the parking lot of the Pink Church on 24th Street in Lighthouse Point at 7AM Saturday.  If you would rather drive yourself, take I-95 to Sunrise Boulevard.  West on Sunrise to second traffic light (NW 27^th Avenue).  Turn right and go North to 15^th Street which is just past Dillard High School.  Turn right on 15^th Street and you will see the building site on the left (2691 NW 15^th Street).  See ya there.

 Our guest speakers this week were Jason Crush, a recovering attorney and Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity, and HFH board member, Birch Willey.  Habitat is now building thirty houses per year in Broward County and has built over 150 new homes in Broward during the past six years.  This is quite an impressive accomplishment.  As you should know, HFH is not a give-away program.  Thirty applicants are selected each year from over 800 submitted.  The selected applicants are required to participate in the building (sweat equity) and to take a year long course on home ownership and management.  The homes are then sold to the new owners at cost with a no interest mortgage back to HFH.  In the past 18 years there has been only one foreclosure and the delinquency rate on the loans is less than four percent.  Banks should do so well.

 Sunshine this week includes birthday best wishes to new dad Phillip Pierson (11/13/03) and the lovely Sherry Likourgou, Nick’s better half.  Dr. Jerry Moore was doubling as the secret shaking man and selected the Coach as the twelfth person to shake his hand.  Another free lunch for the Coach.  Jack Rabideau had the winning ticket for the pot and vowed to contribute his winnings to the Rush Limbaugh defense fund.  Dittos to Jack.

 One of the members was heard complaining this week that his wife always giggled when they had sex and it didn’t matter what she was reading at the time.