Cumulative Member Participation
(Minimum criteria for membership participation is 60%)
                                 
Ed Blumenauer 100
Leslie Bruchey100
Ed Crawford 100
Ken Dell 100
Austin Elmaghrabi
Larry Fellows 90
Eric Gatrell 100
Mark Gaver
Patrick Haley
Bud Jackson Senior
Jerry Jenkins 100
Jim Krysiek Leave
Glenn Magaha 100
Dave Maloney 100
Charlie Mertz 100
Frank Parker 96
Phil Pople 100
Bob Rankin Senior
Austin Rippeon Senior
Doc Schaden 100
Christine Semon 100
Paul Sheets 100
Ellis Stroup 100
Rob Summers 100
Jim Wiggins 100

Click here for District-wide Calendar of Events

Click Here for Lt. Gov. Jim's Dec-Jan Div. 9 Newsletter

Jan 5: Christine's Crazies - Board meeting

Jan 12: Jim Fox, Cub Scout Pack 285

Jan 19: Mary Ellen Mitchell and Joyce Heptner from the Maryland Alzheimer's Association

Jan 26: Gift Wrap Appreciation Dinner with Speaker from Special Olympics

Christine's Connections by Pres. Christine Semon

As we finish up with and move out of the ‘Season of Giving’, we have much to be thankful for! Let us be thankful for our health, family and friends in our lives; let us be thankful for those in the community and world our Kiwanis club has impacted in some way, and let us also be thankful that our gift-wrap fundraiser is completed (Do I hear an “Oh yea!” from Phil?!?)!! In sixteen (yes, 16) days, our club was wrapping until the mall closed (and opening at either noon for the 1st week and 9am the 2nd week). We manned it with just over 900 ‘people’ hours!! WOW! This feat couldn’t have been done without the help from our club members (and spouses and children); members from our Circle K, Key Club, and Builders Club (and advisor); Downtown Frederick Kiwanis club members (and spouses); Cub Scouts (and parents); friends from SAFE Kids Coalition and a few other faithful friends that enjoy helping every year or even that just started this year. THANK YOU to all! To update you a bit, we raised about $3000 more than last year! Great job! Personally, I wanted to offer a very special thanks to Dave Maloney, Phil Pople and Larry Fellows for all the above and beyond work you did with the gift-wrap this year. Thanks again! As Margaret Mead said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Our club and all those wonderful wrappers helped prove this once again, and the community and our sponsored youth will be thankful for your efforts, throughout the upcoming year!

This month we are starting up our Program Speakers again (as we took a short break in December for gift-wrap obligations and the holidays). Mark and Ken did a nice job setting up some good speakers this month. Thanks guys! Be sure to come by a meeting to listen to them! Since we are handling the speaker programs a bit differently this year, I wanted to voice a request to the club on how to handle communication of programs, going forward. Whomever is responsible for the programs each month (teams of two, choose one person amongst yourselves), please send Phil Pople your speaker information (as he is ultimately responsible for them as Vice President of the club) by the last week before your assigned month. Phil will in turn be responsible for forwarding the program speaker information to Dave Maloney by the Monday before the board meeting, in order to be published in “The Chatter.” Hopefully this ‘process’ will enable this new system to flow simpler, for all involved. Thanks for your support!

We have some great events to look forward to, so please mark you calendars for the following dates. Governor Yvonne Holley will be coming to Division 9 on Wednesday, January 11, 2006 at Homewood at Crumland Farms for her Official Governors Visit. She is coming here, to our town! Let’s do our best to have a great showing from our club! At the last meeting I heard that we have six from our club planning to attend. With this we have a double interclub. Can we make it a triple interclub?? Please check your calendars and let our interclub Chairperson (Ellis Stroup) know ASAP if you are able to attend. Learn more about this event and other Division 9 issues by reading Lt. Gov. Jim's Dec-Jan issue of his Div. 9 Newsletter.

Skipping a head a few months, we have our 1st Mid Winter conference for the Mason Dixon Region (Divisions 9, 12 and 14) under the new Capital District structure. It will be held in Columbia, MD which is fairly central to the new Regional grouping (and only about 45 minutes from us) on March 4, 2006 and is scheduled to be a one-day event. A few weeks later we have one of my personal favorite events. On March 23, 2006 we will have our Sponsored Youth Night in Taneytown, MD. All of Division 9’s Builders Clubs, Key Clubs, Circle K’s and Aktion Clubs (and Kiwanians) are invited to celebrate our great Kiwanis family and share accomplishments. Looking one more month into the future, our club will be hosting the next Divisional Council Meeting with LTG Jim Jacobs on April 20, 2006. So, Frank and Austin E, you get a free pass for that meeting day!!

The Christmas Party is scheduled for January 7th, 2006. It will be at the Holiday Inn, on the 2nd floor, in the back room. It starts at 6pm. The price will be $15 per person. There will be a cash bar (in the bar) available also. It will be a buffet style dinner and Bobbi will also be entertaining us with her lovely singing, before dinner. Charlie would like to have numbers (for head count) and monies by the next meeting (Jan 5th). Please contact him (mercee25@aol.com) if not able to be at next week's meeting. We want to do our best to avoid collecting monies at the door, the evening of the party. Come one, come all and lets celebrate a great 2005 and wonderful upcoming 2006!!!

To finish up on this ‘Season of Giving’ and this month’s article, I would like to end with a quote by Winston Churchill: “You make a living by what you get, however you make a life by what you give.” Thank you Suburban Frederick Kiwanis club and all our wonderful supporters for giving your all to our gift-wrap project and our community!!! You are all wonderful gifts to me!

The Kiwanis Club of Suburban Frederick held its 18th annual gift wrap at Francis Scott Key mall in Frederick, MD from December 10th through December 24th. In what proved to be a very successful year, the club netted $15,000 which will go towards local charities. The gift wrap is by far our club's biggest fundraiser, but without the help of our wonderful volunteers we would never be able to pull it off. Our sponsored youth groups from Middletown Middle School, Tuscarora High School, Walkersville High School and Mt. St. Mary's University along with the parents and Cubs of our sponsored Cub Scout Pack 285 put in enormous amount of hours toward our success. The gift wrap is also great for public relations. Customers get to find out who we are and what we are all about. We get all sorts of compliments from our patrons for the amount of sacrifice that it takes to do this project. It's also a great way to obtain prospective new members. With all the years the club has held this fundraiser, its become a tradition. People come to us every year to have their presents wrapped. We become their "life-savers," as they put it (especially for the men who often procrastinate and put off their shopping until the last minute!) Its a great way to meet people, and a great way for them to learn what Kiwanis is all about.