Tag: Knoxville TN

  • 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.

  • 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.

     

  • Jimmy Hyams | WNML Sports Radio | All Vols

    Jimmy Hyams | WNML Sports Radio | All Vols

    Jimmy Hyams obviously had more than a passing interest in what’s happening in sports – mainly basketball and football. In giving our stats on players, I was amazed to hear about a six foot five and seven-footer coming to UT Knoxville!  One player he stated was “a little thin, due to the fact he was seven-foot-tall and only weighed a little over 200 pounds, I immediately determined I was not overweight but under tall. I didn’t get all the weights and measures, but Mr. Hyams seems to think we were in “pretty good shape” for the coming year.  Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

    The Jimmy Hyams Golf Tournament is scheduled for June 7 and we are going to have a 4-person team playing. June 8th is Celebrate Sound and if the weather doesn’t cool off we’re going to have mostly virtual walkers – me being one of them.

  • Esther Roberts | Knoxville Police Department Chaplain

    Esther Roberts | Knoxville Police Department Chaplain

    Knoxville Police Department Chaplain

    Our speaker, Esther Roberts is the total package. She is an attorney, lives on a farm and among other things has a horse, and in her free time she volunteers with the Knoxville Police Department as a chaplain.  They (Knoxville has 40) work on a 24-hour shift and is assigned according to the need. She rides in an unmarked car and does not wear a uniform; she does have a badge which identifies her as a chaplain (back in the day I printed those).  Seems Knoxville has a stand out program for our chaplains, so much so that they are invited to go to other cities to help other cities to set up their programs.  The city maintains two chaplains at every ball game “just in case” and they are called to every car accident or fire where there is life lost.  Each person is required to have sixty hours of training.

    Ms. Roberts has also written a book, My Friend Sam. This was about a horse she purchased as a teenager and says she taught her lots about being a person.

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    Tuesday, 2/12 is the Downtown Sertoma Club board meeting.  Attending a meeting is a requirement if you are going for a GEM award and besides that you get to see the “inner” workings of the club.  Another reason is they are mostly fun, you really get to know the persons that make all the plans for the rest of you. Come join us, you buy your own dinner, drink, it last about a hour and a half and is time well spent.

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    Grid Pick:  With 10 out of 10 – Matt Hall.  What do you guys do in your spare time?

     

    Marianne didn’t have the speaker confirmed so we’ll just have to show up and be pleasantly surprised.  She has done an excellent job up until now, so I won’t even yell at her.

  • Susan Williams | Political Analyst | Oct 24th

    Susan Williams | Political Analyst | Oct 24th

    Susan Richardson Williams got everyone’s attention when she brought up the upcoming election.  Back in the dark ages we use to vote in class you and you could call the election based on the results. Us kids voted the way we heard our parents were going to vote and right or wrong I don’t know of a time when it didn’t work. Why did they stop doing that?  My kids never had this.

    The Kiwanis joined us and will be back with us this week. The group of Democrats in the room can get downright ugly!  Down boys, majority wins and eventually you will get your turn. 

    I will say this has been one of the uglier campaigns and I for one will be glad when the election will be over, regardless of who wins.  Of course, I am fairly confident my guys are going to win!

    Our annual Knoxville Oktoberfest event was a success! We will have to wait and see what our total numbers will be for the event, however everyone really enjoyed themselves and we are already planning for next year!

    Next week Chris Hoosier is bringing us Bradley Reeves with Cinegraphic Archives and Preservation. He has captured rare reels of Mary Costa, Roy Acuff, smoky mountains home movies, rare footage of WNOX Midday Merry Go Round from 1943 – 1956. Home movies of downtown Knoxville 70 years ago, including first movies of Chet Atkins.  This would be a great one to bring a guest.

  • Rebecca Koszalinski | Speak for Myself | Aug 15th

    Rebecca Koszalinski | Speak for Myself | Aug 15th

    Our speaker this week was Rebecca Koszalinski which is a lot easier to type than to say.  She developed a program for mainly hospitals but has applications other places called “Speak for Myself”.  It is most frustrating to be in a situation where you find it difficult to communicate what the problem is or what you want. I think it’s a great idea and will go far.  I spoke with her after the meeting and she said she has added a great deal to the program because of patient expressed wishes but feels there is too much on it at this time and needs to be “fine-tuned”.  She had added end of life suggestions and thought this might not be a good idea for everyone. It’s trial and error time but I’m sure it is making a lot of patients lives easier and the nurses too.

    Report on the board meeting….  Mostly we talked about our Downtown Knoxville Oktoberfest and who was going to do what. I think it’s safe to say Caroline and Brett have paved the way and we are on our own.  At present we need you – the membership- to bring in auction items and brown bag stuff.  Marianne has agreed to store anything we bring in at her place, Carol and myself are going “scouting” for items on Saturday and we will bring them on Wednesday.  Auction items can be anything from jewelry to cookware. Get out there and hit Wal-Mart, Target, etc.

    We also determined to sponsor a team to play golf for the 40th Annual for Boy Scouts.  Don’t have any details, if your interested ask Matt Hall.

    The annual “Celebrate Sound” walk has been moved to Tyson Park to accommodate everyone who didn’t want to drive to Maryville. It will be on September9th and we expect BIG turnout. You can still walk on line and not have to leave home but if it’s not raining its kind of fun. Plan to join us.

    Next week:  We have Elaina Steno with Second Harvest Food Bank.  Brought to us by Matt Hall.

  • Bob Thomas | WIVK | Knox County Commissioner | Feb. 7th

    Bob Thomas | WIVK | Knox County Commissioner | Feb. 7th

    Bob Thomas will give our other candidate a run for the money in our up coming county mayor race. Bob has been with WIVK forever and has learned a lot about meeting people. Said he always wanted to be a radio announcer. I think it’s great when you can decide early on what you want to be and then go for it. He worked with Jim Dick and everyone that knew that man remembers him fondly.  They took on several projects (Mr. Dick came up with them and it was up to Bob to see them carried out); the Tennessee Theater which was saved due to their efforts, announcement that we wouldn’t have a Christmas parade in 1974 due to cost, we did.  At some point they decided we needed a hockey team. Getting the team together wasn’t that much of a challenge but after they lost the first 10 games they played it was determined they also needed a coach. It eventually all came together, and we may not be the best, but we are right on up there.

    Mr. Thomas wants to improve the lives of seniors and veterans – can’t argue with any of those. He wants to try a “ride and decide” where high school kids are given an opportunity to work with different organizations such as automotive, printing, plumbing, etc. to see what and how they do things.  He says for every five persons leaving the trades only one is coming in. If this keeps up your bank manager will be making minimum wage and your plumber will be bringing home a hundred thousand a year.

    Next week:  America’s Greatest Treasures by David Lawson.  Should be worth-while.  My brother is bringing him, along with Herman Thomson (not sure about Mr. Thomson and the role he plays but we will know soon!  I do know Mr. Lawson has offered to work with us on fund raising and I believe he has spoked to that “other” group next door.

  • Mayor Tim Burchett | September 27th

    Mayor Tim Burchett | September 27th

    Matt Hall is responsible for bringing our county mayor to us. I think we should start a petition to keep him as mayor, he has done an excellent job and done it all without raising taxes. Not everyone is pleased with his progress, he get sued on a regular basis, top is 3 times in one day and gets death threats on occasion. However, he has built 2 new schools, spent 3.5 million on paving, managed a raise for deputies; and reduced the work force by combining services.  When entertaining persons considering relocating their business to Knoxville he takes them to Wrights Cafeteria;  that way they get some good hometown cooking and get to meet people they will be working with.  He says Knoxville and the people sell themselves. He plans to run for congress and personally I wish him luck.

    Grid pick:  This is getting harder every week, seems we had a five-way tie but the winner with 10 out of 10 – Al Gill.  We had 1.5 visitors; Matt brought his wife Sasha and our newest Sertoman in training  baby daughter Adalyn.

    According to my list Caroline Grimm is responsible for our speaker for next week and either a) she didn’t want me to know who it is going to be or b) she forgot and she doesn’t know who it will be.  Let’s all show up and find out together.

    Mark your calendars: On the 18th of October we will be meeting at the Southern Railway building. That will be the Wednesday after Oktoberfest.  Getting close!