| Christine's
Connections by
Pres. Christine Semon
 Dear
Kiwanis club of Suburban Frederick, it looks like the winter
is finally here in Maryland! We have had lots of snow, wind
and ice this past month. We even cancelled our meeting (erroneously)
because of the threat of snow that never materialized on
one of our meeting nights. Better safe than sorry in my
book!!
At
our
meetings
in February,
we had a wonderful array of speakers and I am sure that March
will be just as exciting, if not more.
 The
first meeting of the month was cancelled, do to the projection
of snow, which never really came. On the 8th of February,
we were honored to have past president of the downtown
Kiwanis Club, Eric Nichols (shown right with Phil), speak
to us about the Homewood at Crumland
Assisted Living Center, where he is Executive Director.
He shared with us about what is currently going on and
some
of their plans to of expanding in the future. The club
was very interested at how progressive Eric, as Director,
and
his staff are at Homewood and some might be checking it
out for their future or the future of their loved ones.
After
Eric spoke, we had our required monthly board meeting,
which was one of the shortest ever, according to Secretary
Rob
Summers.
February
10th was a Saturday, however our club decided to get together
anyway. This time we were celebrating!
At this
meeting, we had about 60 Kiwanians and guests attending,
from our club and five other clubs in our division. We
were also honored that Division 9 LTG Fred Lohnes and
Governor Elect Art Riley (and their wives) were able to
spend the
evening with us. We were all celebrating our clubs 35th
Anniversary
of our Chartering and our annual  Christmas
party. It seems that a good time was had by all in attendance.
The
evening
went something like this: a wonderful meal was had by
all; President Elect Phil Pople acknowledged all past presidents
and LTG’s from our club; Certificates of Appreciation
for past service was presented to all club members present
(with original date of becoming a club member included);
Special recognition was given to the 4 (out of 5 existing)
charter members that were able to attend the event (at
left I and Sec. Rob stand with charter members Eric Gatrell,
Ed Crawford, ed Blumenauer and Charlie Mertz; not pictured
is charter member Glenn Magaha); and Appreciation Plaques
were presented to Leslie Bruchey for being a
wonderful
 Treasurer,
Charlie Mertz for being his wonderful resourceful self
and go to guy (for me) and Phil Pople (right)) as my
choice for the Kiwanian of the Year. Then we all were
able to
watch
the premier showing of the soon-to-be world-famous and
award-winning “History of the  Kiwanis
Club of Suburban Frederick- the 1st 35 years” (left)
created by our own Vice President (and very humble) Dave
Maloney.
(By the way, copies of this 30-minute video are available for $20 payable to
the club. All funds collected go to our club Admin. Account.
Contact Dave.) And if that wasn’t
enough, we then got to exchange Christmas gifts (a bit
belated) with club members
and guests, whoever wanted to bring a gift and participate.
Also,
our infamous Rooster statue showed up again (thanks to
member Larry Fellows) and was picked by a member of the
Taneytown
club, so she now has an invitation to come back next
year, to exchange it!! Thanks to all the guests and members
that
shared in our special moment and especially to Charlie
Mertz, Debbi Matthews and Dave Maloney for helping out
with the
planning and logistics of the event to have it run as
smoothly as possible. Even though we had to add about
10 extra chairs
and settings at the last minute (as some guests forgot
to RSVP) people didn’t seem to mind the delay too
much and enjoyed a great night of fellowship and celebration.
For a complete, mind-blowing pictorial wrap-up of this
now-famous event, see the award-winning coverage
compliments of your humble eChatter
editor, Dave Maloney. Just
click here.
 The
next week, on the 15th we had Gary Whidden come by
to share some of his wonderful stories and experiences
from
World War II. Several of the club members were also
involved with this event, so it was very interesting to
hear different
opinions from different parts of the military represented
between Mr. Whidden and our members. Pictured to the
right Glenn Magaha (l) poses with Guy Whidden. Guy
also shared that he is in the process of writing a book
based on over 300 letters
he wrote back to his parents during WWII while
he was overseas. Hopefully it will be able to be published
sometime
in the
near future for us to enjoy! Keep your eyes out for
it.
On
February 22nd, Sue Shatto was able to visit with our club
to share some of her vast knowledge about
the history
of
Frederick city and our surrounding county. As many
of our members have grown up in this area, or are great
with
the
history
of
the
area, it
almost
seemed like a group discussion. Some of our club
members shared their own stories to complement some of
the
facts and stories Mrs. Shatto's shared. We hope to
have her
back in the future to share some more local facts
with us. Also,
our LTG Fred Lohnes also visited us at this meeting.
He reminded us about the upcoming Regional Midwinter
Conference
in Columbia on March 24th,
and the Divisional Governors Visit in Hagerstown
on April 26th. It is always a pleasure and honor to have
Fred, a charter member
of the
Greater Westminster Club, visit with us!!
And
most recently, I was joined by Phil Pople, Ken Dell, Dave
Maloney and Helen Maloney to celebrate founding of Scouting
in America at the annual Blue and Gold Banquet
held by our sponsored Cub Pack 265. With a tropical
theme, awards and good food were the highlights of the
evening. Click on the
below thumbnails for some great images of this fun-filled
evening.
As
February is a short month, we get to roll right into March.
It will
be a busy one for our club. Vice
President
Dave has
set up a nice list of presentations scheduled for
us, so be sure to attend as many as possible! Just
to give
you
a heads up, the end of March will be pretty busy
for us! It
was officially decided last week that our club
would be hosting the Divisional K Family night. All Kiwanis
clubs
and their
Sponsored Leadership Programs (Circle K, Key Club,
Builders Club and AKtion clubs) are being invited
to this event
to share in an evening of fun and fellowship. We
are hosting this event on March 22nd. This will
be
a great
opportunity
to meet some of our division's sponsored youth
and hear about
the great projects they have been doing recently
for our communities. Than, two days later, in Columbia,
the Regional
Midwinter Conference will be held. This is an opportunity
for Kiwanians (and SLP members) to come together for a
one-day
meeting
to learn at different workshops offered and share
good times together. Members from Divisions 9 (ours),
12
and 14 are
in our Region, the Mason Dixon Region. It is also
the time when the delegates from each club can
vote
for
the next
Regional Trustee to represent us on Capital Districts
Board of Directors.
I believe there are 2 people running for this position
and each club get a maximum of 3 votes. Any club
member can sign
up and the cost is only $25, which will include
the lunch for the day. Also,
we have been invited to attend a special
event at Frederick Community College. We have
a past president Skip Hickman who passed away several
years
ago. To honor
who he was and all he contributed back to the
community, his old company, Datatel, Inc., and his wife
Mick and our club participate
in offering a scholarship to two students
at FCC yearly.
On March 30th, FCC is having a Donor Scholar
event and all
club members are invited to attend with past
president and current member Mick Hickman to meet this
year's recipient of the Ship Hickman Memorial Scholarship
award. Let Mick know soon if you
would like
to go, so she can RSVP to the college.
As
some of you know, I am a pretty big Notre Dame University
fan. My father and one of my
brothers
went there and
my father was actually the roommate of a recent
President of the college
(Monk Malloy). I am also a big football fan
and always (have to) vote for Notre Dame (it is required
if
your relatives
have ever attended the school ;-) ). So, Lou
Holtz, past coach of their football team is,
of course,
one of my
heroes. I was invited by a friend to see him
speak locally (in
person)
a few years ago and he is truly inspirational,
in my humble opinion. So, when I recently saw
this quote
from him, I
just knew I needed to share it with you! Lou
Holtz once said, “Ability
is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what
you do. And Attitude determines how well you do it.”  Very
appropriate for a football team that strives to do their
best every game and very appropriate for the Kiwanis Club
of Suburban Frederick that has the “Kiwanis Team Attitude” (just
like our new pins say)! Our clubs has the ability, motivation
and attitude to do whatever we want to for our service leadership
programs and community! Let’s keep doing all the wonderful
things we have done for our youth, community, and world,
for at least another 35 years! As always, I am very honored
and proud to say I am a Kiwanian and especially that I am
a member of the Kiwanis Club of Suburban Frederick! Let’s
have an awesome month!! |
