Great meeting Friday on a beautiful and brisk first meeting of spring.  Alan Buffaloe got us off on the right foot with a great invocation in which he invoked the Lord’s name 14 times!  Secretary Bob is back and looking no worse for wear following the end of his radiation treatments for prostate cancer. Congratulations, Bobby J !  Kalli Ziegler thanked us for our prayers for her dear brother, Jay, who passed away last week.  Kalli said there was a mishap at the burial when his casket got stuck in the grave.  This reminds me of an old Kiwanis story about Newton Robertson, a long-time club member, who was a pallbearer at a funeral and actually fell into the grave.  If that wasn’t bad enough, Kiwanis members Dick Lewis and Bobby McKoy were both at the service and from that day forward Newton Robertson falling into the grave became an oft repeated standing Kiwanis gag. Madison reported that the Terry Sanford Key Club raised $540 in their fun run last weekend. She and several other Key Clubbers are headed to the district convention in Durham this weekend.  Tim Pope was back for his third meeting and his membership is pending board approval.

 

Jim Ammons told us of his Kiwanis backstory and how became a member back in 1991.  He brought along a newsletter written in 1990 by Dick Lewis, which was a classic. Dick was sooo funny!  His son said at his funeral that Dick would watch the old Dean Martin Roasts on TV and take notes on insults he could bring to Kiwanis.

 

President Jim announced the formation of a new committee, the Sock Committee, headed up by Tricia “Iron Woman” Moreno and Debbie Best. Outside of a hot meal, socks were identified by teachers as the number one need for low-income elementary school children.  While we can’t feed everyone, we sure can make sure each child has clean, warm socks to wear to school.  For the boys the color preference is black, For girls any color will do.  Make sure to get size appropriate socks of any length. Socks can be purchased at almost any store or online. Collection starts next Friday and runs through April 25.  Let’s make this a big success!

 

Opening day for Youth Baseball is April 5.  Plan on spending a hour with us that morning to help kick-off the season.  If you have a prospect for a field sign, contact President Jim.

 

Richard Everett and his Interclub Committee completed their 5^th and final Interclub visit of the year qualifying us for a banner patch.  The group went to Lillington for a joint meeting with their club and to tour the new oncology center there affiliated with Cape Fear Valley.

 

Past President Al reminds committee chairs to submit your budget requests for next year to him as soon as you can. The new budget year begins October 1.

 

Garry Two R’s report that we netted $21,700 from the virtual Reverse Raffle.  Mark Hurley won $750 and Trishia Moreno won $650.  Bob Exum is on a winning streak as strong as the Tar Heels.  Bob won $45 in the 50/50 last Friday afternoon, $450 later that night in the Reverse Raffle and incredibly won the 50/50 again this Friday netting another $52.  Treasurer Richard, please issue Bob a 1099 so he can pay the tax man his take.

 

This month’s Kiwanis Social is being held this Thursday, March 27 at Carolina Ale House in the Barnes and Nobles shopping center.  General Jay and Camillo are springing for the lavish horse drivers and as always we will have door prizes.  These socials are really fun and a great opportunity to bring a prospective member.  Hope to see you there at 5:30 PM.

 

Bob McAmis and Lee Warren brought us a true local coaching legend in the person of Methodist University baseball coach, Tom Austin.  Tom is not only the longest-tenured employee of the university, he also holds the distinction of being the longest serving coach at a single school in the entire NCAA at all three division levels!  Over his 45-year career Tom has amassed 1300 wins and six trips to the college world series.  Tom’s success has been nothing short of phenomenal. This year his team has an aggregate GPA of 3.0. Tom answered questions and emphasized the baseball, probably more than any other sport is a game of statistics, as portrayed in the movie Moneyball. Membership Chair, Cheryl Gleason shows why she is the perfect for this  job.  She invited Coach Austin to fill out a membership application on the spot!

 

Everyone loves completing their March Madness brackets this time of year.  According to Sports Illustrated, the odds of predicting all 63 games correctly to record a perfect bracket are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 or approximately 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Well, it may be a long shot, but I’m copying whatever Bob Exum picks!

 

See you Thursday, then Friday!

John F. Holmes

jholmestarheel@gmail.com  910-988-8040