Tag: Knox Sertoma Club

  • Eddie Mannis | Knoxville Mayor Candidate | Aug 14th

    Eddie Mannis | Knoxville Mayor Candidate | Aug 14th

    Eddie Mannis wants to be our next mayor or Knoxville and having lived here and being a Knoxville business owner, I believe he may just know what he’s talking about.  His biggest claim to fame is the creation of Honor Air and I believe he has a warm place in the hearts of several Knoxvillians be they veterans or not.

    He also stated we need new businesses in Knoxville and if that is not something you are interested in; you need to vote for someone else. He said it has been twenty (20) years since a new company has moved into Knoxville. I tried to think of one that might prove him wrong and couldn’t. I do know East Towne Mall is going down the tubes quickly. Whoever wins, let’s do our part to help.

    The board meeting was pretty much devoted to Oktoberfest and what we can do to make it better, etc.  As that is our only major fund raiser, we must put all we can into making it a success. If you have any ideas, suggestions, or criticisms please pass them on.

    Janet Bigelow will be our speaker next week and for as long as she has been gone; surely she has traveled the world.

  • Shannon Ball and Sarah with Waiting To Hear | July 17th

    Shannon Ball and Sarah with Waiting To Hear | July 17th

    Mr. Shannon Ball, our speaker last week brought his daughter with him who at the age of 2 ½ lost her hearing. A few days after her diagnosis they met a family whose daughter had cochlear implants. With that family’s guidance and support Sarah received cochlear implants of her own just seven months later; and began her journey back to a world of sound. The implants literally changed Sarah’s life and inspired her parents start Waiting to hear.

    Waiting to Hear is a 501©3 tax exempt charity based in Kingsport TN. They serve all of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia with plans to expand to the surrounding regions soon.  They are proud to be 100% volunteer run organization with a single purpose: To help deaf kids hear!

    Support Waiting to Hear for FREE every time you shop. Sign up for Amazon Smile and choose Waiting to Hear as your preferred charity and Amazon will donate a portion of your total purchase, also Kroger Community Rewards. It’s easy to register and completely free for you.

  • John D Cobb Eagle Scout | Boy Scouts of America | June 12th

    John D Cobb Eagle Scout | Boy Scouts of America | June 12th

    The Knoxville Boy Scouts of America

    John D. Cobb an Eagle scout, started off with a video of the year to kick off his presentation. He spoke to us about his scouting journey and was then followed up by Anthony Ingram to answer questions.

    John D. Cobb | Eagle Scout

    Is an Eagle Scout from Troop 46 chartered to Cokesbury United Methodist Church. He has served as a patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, and instructor for National Youth leadership training for 2 years. John D. has been a Scout since he was in 1st grade. His Eagle Scout project was a 400-gallon ferrocement water tank that he likes to refer to as “two tons of fun”. He attends Clayton Bradley Academy, is a National Merit Semi-finalist, AP scholar, the valedictorian and president of the student council, and captain of the debate team.

    Anthony Ingram | Professional Scout

    Was born in Columbus Georgia. He has a bachelor of arts in professional theater from South Carolina State University, He is an Eagle Scout with 3 palms, National President’s Scoutreach Award recipient, a member of the Order of the Arrow, and has served on Wood Badge staff. Anthony has been a professional Scout for over 11 years, when he is not Scouting he enjoys acting, reading, volunteering at this church and spending time with family and friends.

    We were also joined by Nathan Cunningham ( Director of Field Service) and Neal Drown

    The wonderfull speakers were brought to us by Matt Hall – member of The Downtown Sertoma Club

     

  • Justin Lafferty | 89th district state representative | June 5th

    Justin Lafferty | 89th district state representative | June 5th

    Justin Lafferty is the “new kid on the block” and is ready to take on the big guys. He said he has been interested in politics since Middle School and has some things he is really wanting to make a change too.  The more he talked the more I became convinced he will use this office as a steppingstone. I was impressed with him and my hope is for him to go far.

    Carol Mohney and I attended Celebrate Sound Saturday morning. I was late, which caused Carol to be late.  The new location is convenient, clean and has plenty of parking.  They attempted to have something for everyone; a bubble machine had one little boy fascinated, he never took his eyes off of it.  If you haven’t done so, get out your checkbook and just thank the good Lord you can hear.

  • Greg MacKay | Knox County Election Reform

    Greg MacKay | Knox County Election Reform

    Prayer:  Matt Hall

    Pledge:  Ron Grimm

    Terrell Kerr announced the “Celebrate Sound” walk is June 8th at UT Gardens.  The cost is $25 to be a Virtual Walker and you do not have to attend.  The cost to be a Super Walker is $100 and you don’t have to attend for that honor either!  Terrell said they need for people to sign up so please do so soon!

    Chris Hoosier introduced his speaker, Greg MacKay, who is speaking on Knox County Election Reform.  Greg thinks we should go to “Voting Centers” to vote and predicts within 10 years we will have voting centers open for 5 days at which to vote.  He also thinks we will move to paper ballots by mail. He says we could vote by computer but too many people worry about fraud. To increase the number of voters who vote, 2 things would work.  1) Election packets and 2) Same day voter registration. He thinks we should have a 10 day early voting period. Our current early voting period is too long. He also thinks we should vote by our social security numbers as we could detect fraud more easily.  He doesn’t think there is much fraud in elections because he has looked for it. As an aside, Greg thinks if a person did something illegal 20 years ago which took away his right to vote, his right to vote should be restored at some point in the future, like possibly 30 years after the illegal act.  Greg said we led the country in early voting in the last election. Early voting is popular here.

    Greg was in Russia in March of last year to monitor their elections.  Putin had his opponent arrested and thrown in jail so Putin won the election because his opponent was in prison so therefore he did not qualify to run!  Greg and his team of volunteers did not stop anyone from voting. They just wrote down what they saw and sent it into the Russian government for them to review.  They are always looking for volunteers to go to Russia to monitor elections. Contact OSCE if you are interested. You don’t get paid for it but you get a free airline ticket to Russia!

    There were 17 members attending today for The Downtown Sertoma Club and 1 interesting speaker.

    John Cogdill has Justin Lafferdy as the speaker next week.

     

  • Chris Kerr | UT basketball | May 8th.

    Chris Kerr | UT basketball | May 8th.

    Our own Chris Kerr came to the rescue after our scheduled speaker Larry Vaughn couldn’t attend as scheduled. He spoke off the cuff on “All things Knoxville and Tennessee Basketball.  Chris loves basketball and he had two cousins who played together on their high school team and together they won the championship that year. Chris played in high school but quit his senior year; he says now you should never quit anything.

    When he grew up on Maloney Road, he liked to play pranks with his friends.  They enjoyed doing it, however, when his mother learned the details, she made him go to the sheriff’s office to apologize – sorta took the fun out of it.

    Chris said he avoided public speaking for 20 years, but a friend had him attend a public speaking class; given the entertaining off the cuff talk he gave us today I think he got over it!

    Our speaker next week will be Becky Massey.  We need lots of members to come and give her a good showing.

  • Courtney Moore | CBD | Jan. 30th

    Courtney Moore | CBD | Jan. 30th

    Knoxville CBD American Shaman

    CBD oil is the new aspirin and some combination can cure just about anything.  It is mostly used for pain relief but branches out into anxiety, insomnia and lots of other non-life threatening ailments.  Courtney Moore, our speaker, was very knowledgeable and really believed in her product. If you don’t have a problem it is also available for the cat, dog or horse! The samples she brought (she did bring samples) were water soluble, and a cream that you could use for pain relief, some were flavored with great flavors such as grape and cherry.  Her store is located on the corner of Kingston Pike and Lovell Road, across from Costco.

    Seems we purchase a large amount of help from Canada and the closest place here is in Kentucky. Government regulated of course with permit required.  Only takes 90 days to grow and it helps to regenerate the soil.

    Her store carries a variety of products to purchase:  candy, gummies, cookies, tea, bath bombs, body lotion, face cream, etc. Check it out, American Shaman CBD.

    Next week:  Easter Roberts a Chaplain for the Knoxville Police Department.  I don’t know who is responsible for this speaker but of late all our speakers have been excellent. Puts a lot of pressure on anyone trying to set one up.  Attendance has been down; where are you guys?

    Grid pick winner with 9 out of 9 – Chris Kerr.  He was very humble as he collected his winnings.

    Lee Freeman announced Rick Barnes and Jimmy Hyams will be the speakers at the Sertoma Friendship Dinner on April 16. The tables hold 8 persons each and we had two tables last year.  He thought it might be a good idea if we increase that to three.

    I understand Brett Grimm has the flu. To ad to his misery, his wife threw him out of the house! We have babies to look after.

  • Matt Hall | Oktoberfest update

    Matt Hall was a stand in for Jacob and did an excellent job. Especially since he was in charge of the speaker and she didn’t come.  Happens to all of us and he handled it with grace.  I do believe he’ll do an excellent job next year and its good he’s getting some on the job training.

    We passed around sigh up sheets for “Celebrate Sound” to first find out if you were going to participate and what size t-shirt you wanted.  We’re only asking for $25.00 (tax deductible) and the money goes to our hearing aid loaner program.  If you were not there last week plan to sign up this week. The walk this year will be at Concord Park on September 9th. 

    We discussed the Knoxville Oktoberfest Fundraiser which is not that far away.  September is just a week away. Carol Mohney and I went shopping for some brown bag items over the weekend but not enough to fill all the brown bags. We also need auction items. Remember we didn’t want to constantly be having “fund” raisers and determined to have the one and let that be it – this is it!  We have several beer sponsors so regardless we can get drunk!

    Next Week (maybe) our speaker will be Lisa Nichols who came up with the program Stocking from US. This is a great idea and really makes you feel good especially when you see newsfeeds of soldiers that won’t be coming home.  We contributed to this so come hear what she has to say and give yourself a pat on the back.

    Just a reminder: Speaker chairs for September are as follows:

    09/5 Rusty Farrell

    9/12 Mike McKinney

    9/19 Terrell Kerr

  • Sam Maynard | James White Fort | June 13th

    Sam Maynard | James White Fort | June 13th

    Sam Maynard – James White Fort

    We had a very interesting history lesson this week from Sam Maynard. His family came here from Germany and settled in east Knox county. They were dairy farmers and practiced this trade.  Mary Lou Horner got him involved in helping to preserve old buildings such as James White Fort. She insisted at the time, it would on take a couple of months, he has been working on it for fifteen years!  Did you know the original fort sat in the middle of where State Street Garage now sits? We are so fortunate to have so much history that surrounds us.

    Officers

    Today we installed our officers for next year.  We begin on July 1 with a new and not so new group. Going to have to suffer through for another year with Andy as treasurer, Carol as secretary and me on the bulletin. Now at any time you can declare you’ve had enough and take the position!

    Report on the board meeting:

    Jobs have been assigned for Oktoberfest from Brett and most of us know what we’re suppose to do to make it run smoothly. He is convinced Caroline and possible him will not be available to participate.   We do need items for the brown bags and it wouldn’t hurt to start thinking about items to donate for the auction. Keep in mind folks, this is our one and only fund raiser and we must make it count.

    Sign up sheets for the picnic at Jerry Faerbers’ were passed around. Club will furnish the meat, everything else we are responsible to bring. Hot dogs and hamburgers are the menu for this year and lots of fellowship. If you missed the meeting, get there next week and tell us what your bringing. Picnic is on the 24th and here are

    directions:

    Go north on I-75, exit 128 (Rocky Top) Turn left on Hwy 441 toward Norris Dam. Go 1.3 miles, turn left on Oak Grove Rd. Go 1.4 miles, turn right on Lindsey Mill Circle.  Jerry’s cell (should you need it) 865.659-2305 , landline 865.630-1047.

    Next week: 

    We will have our very own Senator Massey who will hopefully tell us what we can expect in the future. Come join us, several people have been missing lately and we miss you!

  • Leonard Knight & Clif Goodgame | Neighborhood Nerds | May 2nd.

    Leonard Knight & Clif Goodgame | Neighborhood Nerds | May 2nd.

    This week we were fortunate to have the Neighborhood Nerds as our speakers. This was compliment of our own Allie Harmon. These are his neighbors and not stepping on anyone’s toes, but Allie really needs them.

    Their main function is to keep your computer running smoothly, however, it has branched out into things like lost dogs/cats, filling in on IRS and other scams (i.e. relative in jail, send money) and a host of other things they can take off your plate. They charge $65 a month and if you want to pay a year in advance you get 1 month free. They certainly appeared to know what they are talking about and just knowing who you can call would make a great difference in most people’s life.  Leonard Knight and Clif Goodgame were the two that visited us, however, I understand they recently hired 8 Apple employees. Got a problem, you cab find them on the web at help@nnerd.com.

    Next week:  Board meeting on Tuesday, May 8 at Chesapeak’s across from the Holiday Inn downtown @ 6 pm. All are welcome.

    On Thursday, May 10 we will have the Friendship Dinner at the Quality Inn, again you get to go downtown. We have two tables and I think we have two open seats; if this is not the case, never fear we will find a place for you.

    Housekeeping: Jacob Tippens read the prayer, Aubrey Cowen led the pledge.