Tag: Knoxville Sertoma

  • Mary Claiborne | Director for Marketing Knox Public Library | Jan 10th

    Mary Claiborne | Director for Marketing Knox Public Library | Jan 10th

    The final count on who gets the money was decided at the board meeting last week. We also decided to make them attend a meeting to receive their check. I think that’s only fair, we put a lot of effort into getting the money and we want to see a grateful face! I didn’t write down the breakdown of who gets what, but you’ll have an opportunity to hear that at the meeting. Lisa Nichols who is the inspiration behind Stockings from US is becoming an associate member.

    We also voted to continue with the St. Patrick’s Day social. This is not a fund raiser, just a casual “get together”. The date is March 11 at the foundry.

    Next week:  Glen Jacobs who is a candidate for mayor is coming to tell us why we should vote for him. Now I’m not a fan but I understand he got his start in wrestling under the name Cane – some of you may remember him. He is now a businessman and sells insurance.  Bring a friend, should be fun.

    Mary Claiborne, Assistant Director for Marketing, was our speaker last week and even though I have belonged since grammar school, I learned a lot. Frist off I always wondered where the name came from; it was named after his daughter! The first library was built in 1886 and McGhee donated the land! We were the first library in the county and possible the first in the state to be integrated.  Along with a well-stocked library they also offer tutoring, citizenship courses in Spanish, test prep on line.  The library hosts the Dolly Parton Imagination Library and this month will be mailing out 26,000 books in Knox County and 2.5 million across the state. They also supply books for home bound persons who cannot physically come to the library.  All of this is paid for from our wheel tax – I had no idea.  I grew up without television, so reading was and is my all-time favorite pastime. I tried to pass this along to my children and have traveled the world over – in a book.

    Housekeeping: Bob Rentenbach read the prayer, Al Gill led the pledge. Al finally made it back and brought his daughter (or she brought him) Nancy Wilson.  Either way, we’re glad he’s back.  Matt Hall was the winner in the grid pick for last week.

  • Bethany Lovato | Elkmont Exchange | Jan 3rd

    Our speaker on Wednesday, Bethany Lovato, part owner, in charge of marketing and all around nice person, with the Elkmont Exchange brought samples!  They got their start in Viet Nam and lived there for several years. They are a company of three persons:  Bethany, Alex Violette and Brian Davenport. Seems the men have been friends for years, one was into food, the other beer. They determined to combine their talents and opened a restaurant that servers food and beer.  It worked, and they now have several locations to include the first one in Viet Nam that is thriving. They had to learn to make not only bread but also butter as these items were not available locally – see how lucky we are? Everything was going well until their daughter was born and they decided to return home which was originally Knoxville. They have purchased a house in North Knoxville that they are restoring to its original beauty and hope this will be a forever home.  Go check them out, they are located at 746 Broadway  between the cleaners and Broadway Baptist Church, open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

    I didn’t get information concerning who will be our speaker for next week, but rest assured he/she will be great. Come check them out.  For the record: Bob Rentenbach read the prayer and Brett Grimm led the pledge, we had a measly twenty something that came. My table was empty except for Dr. Jerry and Chris Hoosier.

  • South Doyle High School Madrigal Singers | Dec 13th

    The Madrigal Singers, as always were great.  A comfort to know all the young people are not out buying dope and plotting to take over the world. They did a fantastic job and I believer all were glad they came. Rusty, Mike McKinney, Carl Asp, Mike Simpson, and Chris Kerr brought their wives. Simpson even brought our Sertoma in training, his daughter and Janet Bigelow brought her sister and her daughter. Room looked more like “the good ole days”.

    Next week:  Mike Simpson has convinced our own Jimmy Duncan to come and speak with us. He is always a great person to have and gives us an insight to what is really going on in Washington. Hopefully with all the talk about the new tax plan he will still be able to attend.

    After the meeting on the 20th we will not meet again until January 10, 2018!  Have a great Christmas and New Year and be careful — it’s a jungle out there.

    Our very special Al Gill was recently in the hospital; I don’t know which one or for hour long or why, but I do understand he is back home and doing well.  I did miss him at the meeting, he’s one of the smiling, happy members who always has something nice to say or a joke to tell, wouldn’t be the same without him. Certainly, hope he’s on the road to recovery from whatever.

    Report on the board meeting:  The search is on for a Service to Mankind person. If you know of someone who you think qualifies for this please pass on the information to a board member.

    Also, Jerry Faerber wants to improve the Celebrate Sound and evidently has some ideas to do just that. You possible can tell from these remarks that I was not at the board meeting – I had a conflict and took the one that I thought would be the most fun.

    Record keeping:  Simpson read the prayer, Rusty led the pledge, Jim Thompson won the grid pick.

  • Tim Richardson | Motivational Speaker | Nov 8th

    Tim Richardson | Motivational Speaker | Nov 8th

    Tim Richardson,  our speaker last week, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  He was smart, learned easily, had lots of friends and evidently didn’t have to worry where his next meal was coming from. Life was good, then he experienced a “meltdown”.  This happened several times before he was finally diagnosed with ADHD.  He says it is therapeutic to share and we all have aspects of our life that are blocks to what we can accomplish. I found him to be most interesting, sorry if you missed him. He brought his wife with him and they have six children. Don’t hear of that anymore, I’m jealous.  He talked about friendship and how problems arise and we just let them linger; he said to go to the person, apologize but don’t make excuses.

    Mark your calendars and invite a friend or bring your office staff (only $12. Each) for our Christmas program of the Madrigal Singers from South High School.  December 13 at our regular time.

    Next Week:  We will hear from Brett Grimm on how our one big fund raiser did and how we can do better.  All I know at this point is we didn’t bring enough brown bag items and Caroline had to use her own money to go out and buy some things. I think we are bad to put off to the last minute and then totally forget. At least that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

    Speaking of next week, the board meeting is Tuesday, November 14 and all are invited. Dutch treat on the food but the conversation is lively.

    Housekeeping:  Bob Rentenbach read the prayer and Navy Lt. Allie Harmon led the pledge.  Brittney Grayless represented UT Speech and Hearing, Dan Rowels attended as a friend of the speaker and the big news Jason Grahl with 10 out of 10 won the grid pick and donated the money to Caroline!

  • Tom Reesor | Immigration and Naturalization | Oct 18th

    Allie Harmon brought us one of his neighbors, Tom Reesor who works with immigration and naturalization.  I could have really used him many years ago.  We got a real education on why people come over the border and what is anything is being done about it or do we want them too.  Tom signed up right out of college and one of his first jobs was working with people who claimed to do the same job but didn’t get the same pay. He was sent to California and one complaint came from Loretta Swift (sp) who was starring on the television show MASH. She was not being paid as much as her male co-stars. He had to go through each script and determine the numbers of lines she was required to remember verses her male co-stars. Turns out, she was right, and they had to give her back pay of several thousand dollars. He had lots of stories and when asked if Mexicans who are held responsible for increases in high crime are guilty he stated they are guilty a lot of the time due to not being able to find employment and needing to feed their family. He went on to say they are willing to do work that we don’t want to do i.e. roofing, ditch digging, etc.

    Oktoberfest

    We have packed it away for another year and I can safely say “A good time was had by all”.  We need to give Brett and Caroline a great big Atta Boy for all the work and effort they put in to making the evening a success. I went over to help with set up and they were there when I arrived and there when I left. Also, we were lacking on people bringing brown bag items and Caroline had to go out and purchase items with her own money, so we would have something for each ticket sold. Shame on us!  Don’t know how long it will take for Andy to get all the figures together but we should make more money this year due to some items we have in stock that won’t need to be purchased again.  Don’t know where they found the band, but it is excellent and really knows their stuff.  Part of the evening’s entertainment is watching people play heads or tails and then there is the chicken dance.  For all who participated, thank you!

    Record Keeping: Bob Rentenbach read the prayer and some volunteer from the Kiwanis led the pledge. Next week Terrell Kerr is responsible for the speaker, hope he knows this cause he didn’t tell me.  We didn’t have any visitors and Jim Thompson won the grid pick.

  • Jason Swain | The Swain Event | September 13th

    Jason Swain | The Swain Event | September 13th

    Jason Swain, our speaker this week, actually thought he wanted to be a counselor and got a degree to pursue that career.  He worked as a case worker  at a place in Maryville and then was offered a position on the radio talking about sports, players and who did what right or wrong. Evidently that was too good to pass up and he is one happy camper. He is a Yankee and didn’t grow up in a house where sports was a big deal, however, he said he loves football, East Tennessee and the people and evidently plans to “stay awhile”.  He is one every morning from 7-10 am if you care to listen.

    Our biggest announcement:  Jerry Faerber has secured us a $5,000.00 sponsor for Oktoberfest!  This is Red Door Homes and hopefully this will benefit them also. It won’t be long till the big day is here, if you haven’t done so you need to get your brown bag items in so the “big day” won’t be such a nightmare. Sam’s had a number of things that would work and Walmart is just next door.

    Next Week: Jason has secured Angie Howell with Children’s Hospital. The last week (27th) Matt Hall has convinced Mayor Burchett to speak.

    Housekeeping:  Julie Beeler represented UT Speech & Hearing. Mark Hancock came with someone but I failed to write down who and James Hudson’s claim to fame he was the first player from East High School to play at West High School – we’ve come a long way. The grid pick was won by none other than Chris Kerr picking 9 out of 10.

    As a reminder, the quarterly invoices wiill be appearing on the first of the month and they will reflect the dues increase. To soften the blow on that, the board determined to drop the number required to win, however, the amount will be locked at $10.00 for the drawing and grid pick.

  • Sandra Clark | Knox TN Today | August 16th

    Sandra Clark | Knox TN Today | August 16th

    Sandra Clark, introduced her latest publication KnoxTNToday.com. Formerly with the Halls Shopper which came to be just “The Shopper” and spread out to Fountain City, Powell and several surrounding areas.  She sold these publications to Scripts in 2005 but continued to be the go to person for editorial and content until they decided they could do all this without her.

    She hopes to beat out the Sentinel at the one-year mark. It would be nice to have a “local paper” again.

    I worked with her for a couple of years until she decided she could do it all on her own and she was right!  She was also a state legislator for several years and a real fun person to spend time with. She brought one of her partners with her, Shannon Kerry. Shannon got her introduction to newspaper reporting when Sandra sent her out to investigate a “lost chicken”.   I think it’s safe to say the Sentinel has their work cut out for them.

    Report on the board meeting:  The bad news is the dues are going up.  $180 for regular members, $160 for lifetime and I failed to get the others.  As most of us fall into the first two categories The increase will take effect in October. They decided to donate to the veteran’s foundation and we will receive some type of recognition.  Speech and Hearing are hosting a fund raiser on October 27 and we will most likely have a table at that event. Our major fundraiser, Oktoberfest is scheduled for October 13.

    Mike Simpson made Matt Hall an official member of the club.  He was presented with a pin and officially made a member in good standing.

    Next week:  Our speaker is Becky Ashe, principal of L&M STEM Academy. She spoke when it first opened and she is going to give us and update.

  • Alex Gabbard

    We didn’t have the original speaker we were promised, however, Alex Gabbard did a fine job of “filling in”. He has written a book on the first battle of the American Revolution of which he received a book of the year award. The book, named Gaspee, tells the story of Lt. William Dudingston, captain of the ship Gaspee enforced maritime laws with a vengeance. Anything that was brought into port without the benefit of “paying the taxes to England” was sized and in some cases destroyed. Principal towns were Providence, Newport and Rhode Island. Joseph Bucklin was credited with firing the first shot that hit Lt. Dudingston and therefore started the war. King George offered a reward for his capture, you’ll have to read the book to find out the rest. Before out time, but quite interesting.

    Housekeeping: Jason Grahl read the prayer, Al Gill led the pledge. We had a couple of visitors: Shasta (hope I spelled that correctly) wife of new member Matt Hall, another friend of his and I didn’t get the name, Rand McKinney came with dad and sat with him this time.
    Called board meeting: It’s that time again when you get to “step up to the plate” and help run this organization. With that said, we have a tentative list for you to look at and hopefully approve. These people will take office the first of July so we don’t have a lot of time to pick and choose. If you would like to serve on the board and no one has contacted you, let someone know. We will sign you up!

    And the winners are:

    Chris Kerr, President; Jacob Tippens VP Outreach; Alan Stuckey, VP Member- ship; Brett Grimm, VP Special Events; Andy Schoerner, Treasurer; Carol Mohney, Secretary; Carolyn Grimm, Sgt-at-Arms; Jason Grahl, Speaker chair & grid pick; Matt Hall, Parliamentarian; Allie Harmon & Mike McKinney, Visitation; Bob Rentenbach, Greeter. Board of Directors: Jerry Faerber, Chris Hoosier, Carl Asp, Marianne Greene, Kim Simpson, Linda Price, Mike Simpson. Rusty Farrell, Chairman of the Board.

    In a nutshell: Matt Hall is replacing Tim Curbow, Carol Mohney is replacing Andy Libby, we are adding Mike McKinney to Visitation and Rusty Farrell replaces Mike Simpson as chairman.

  • Cuba Visit by Chris Kerr

    Our own Chris Kerr got his feet wet on public speaking and gave us a bit of a history lesson. Looking back, it’s hard to believe how we had our head in the sand and without leaders like President Kennedy we might all be speaking Russia now.  We practiced getting under our desk in the case of an attack and were told to stay there for at least a minute.  Don’t know about you but I’m glad we didn’t have to put that to the test. Chris had a film from 1957 he shared with us, talking about the dangers. He also had the dog tags he and his brother were issued when he went to Cuba with Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church. As he spoke Spanish he came in real handy to interpret.  Things has improved a great deal; the state wage is now $14 a month, citizens are allowed to have cell phones and they are allowed to feed tourist in their home and keep the money. They need toothpaste, soap, shampoo, etc. Paul Harvey said several years ago on his show, no country can be a world power that can’t take care of its countries personal needs. Let’s face it folks, you may not agree with the last election but we have it good!

    Next Week: Allie Harmon is bringing us Mark Harmon of whom he says is no relation. Should be a lively meeting but leave your firearms at home.

    Housekeeping:  Mike Simpson read the prayer, Caroline Grimm led the pledge and Jillian from UT Speech and Hearing made a return visit.

  • Meeting 2-29-17

    We experienced another “no show” but someone came to the rescue with Lisa Skinner who took Joan Brown’s place at the Sertoma Center. For those not aware, Joan has retired. Lisa brought us up to date on what’s happening at the center and a picture of the duplex that is just one of many on the drawing board to house their clients. Seems the government doesn’t want people being put up in dormitory like housing, prefers them in separate homes. The building is a duplex and quite attractive. Don’t have a clue of the additional cost. Each house has 3 clients per side + a caregiver and they look nice; most neighborhoods wouldn’t have a problem with having one next door. The center is currently responsible for 125 people, 85 live in residential homes. Also, the powers that be, say all the clients must be “out in the community six hours a day. They attempt to get them employed with something they can do, the original win, win.

    P.S. We will need to forgive our “no show”. He was required to be at church to participate in the Ash Wednesday service.

    Next Week:  Caroline Grimm is bringing our speaker. Don’t have any information on who that will be but I’m sure he/she will be great!

    Coming Up:  Board Meeting March 14th.

    Don’t walk in silence April 22nd.

    Friendship Dinner, Butch Jones speaker, May 4th.

    Kenny Withers Golf Challenge May 19th

    Annual Gala, Nights in Havana August 19t