Tag: Sertoma Club Knoxville

  • 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

     

  • 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.

     

  • Lynn Fox | Women in TN History | May 1st

    Lynn Fox | Women in TN History | May 1st

    Our speakers of late have been fantastic. This week he even came in costume an looked the part of our Gov. John Sevier, even though I never met him personally.  I didn’t realize women played as much of a part as they did in history; as a female I should have.  Hope you guys took notes. He also brought pictures and other articles (a dress his mother had worn in a picture he brought with him).  Pictures are another form we have reduced to a art.  It used to be a real production to take a picture and now we do it with out phones which is also a computer – hand held.  The first computer I was introduced too had its own climate-controlled room.

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    Speaking of speakers:  These persons have been signed up for June and July:

    June 05  Chris Kerr

    12  Matt Hall

    19  Mike Simpson

    26  Linda Price

    July   03  Carol Mohney

    10  Jerry Winston

    17  Jerry Faerber

    We had one visitor, Clarence Beaman with the Parkinson Foundation.

  • Greg Mackay | Former Knox County Election Commission | May 16th

    Chris Hoosier was responsible for bringing us Greg Mackay; I don’t know how he knew him, but he was great. He’s been overseas 7 times all to third world countries and says we should thank God every day that we live in America.  It took two and a half hours to drive from the airport to his hotel, not because of the distance but because the roads are so bad and the traffic worse.  They are extremely proud of their subway system and Greg said it us decorated well and has a statue to “Mother Russia” that is twice the size of our Statue of Liberty. He was there to observe an election and the one-person apposing Putin was put in jail and then told he didn’t qualify for election because of it. The day before any election all campaigning must stop, we should consider adopting that.

    Next week:  We have our service project with Mobile Meals.  Have a great time and I will be thinking about you while I lounge on the beach in South Carolina.

    Proposed slate of officers for next year:  These will be voted on in 2 weeks. 

    Jacob Tippens, president; Matt Hall, president elect; Marianne Greene, VP & speaker chair; Alan Stuckey, VP & co-chair membership; Lee Freeman, VP & co-chair membership; Brett Grimm – VP special events; Andy Schoerner – treasurer; Linda Price, bulletin editor; Carol Mohney, secretary; Bert West – Sgt. At Arms; Chris Hoosier, parliamentarian; Allie Harmon & Mike McKinney, visitation; Bob Rentenbach, Chaplin & greeter; Chris Kerr, Chairman of the Board.

  • Nola Radford | UT Speech & Hearing | Nov. 1st

    Nola Radford, our speaker this week, is with UT Speech & Hearing and has written two books on stuttering. She has patients ranging in age from 1 year to adults. She grew up in Arkansas and received her doctorate from Memphis, so I would say we’re lucky to have her settle in Knoxville.  Among other things we learned our own Dr. Asp had a problem with stuttering and had therapy for several years.  Stuttering can be the result of many things and now with the help of people like Dr. Radford, can be corrected.

    Next Week:  Mike McKinney is bringing us Tim Richardson who is going to lead us in life improvement.  I’m curious, how about you?

    In case you didn’t know:  Jerry and Peggy Faerber were responsible for getting the Tamika Catching Scholarship started.  Aren’t we lucky to rub shoulders with such nice people!

    Housekeeping:  Bob Rentenbach read the prayer and Ron Grimm led the pledge, we had a guest brought to us by Alan Stuckey – Desmond Longford.  Grid pick was won by Brett Grimm who named 10 out of 10 and then the smart a— donated the money back. Show off!

    The board meeting is scheduled for November 14 @ 6 pm. All are invited.

    Al Gill, along with Don Williams and Bill Lawhorn was featured having participated in an honor air flight.

  • Elizabeth Psar | Julia Barbara Foundation | Oct. 25th

    Elizabeth Psar | Julia Barbara Foundation | Oct. 25th

    Today we had Wonderful a heartfelt presentation by Elizabeth Psar of “The JULIA BARBARA Foundation!” Elizabeth is the mother of beautiful Julia Barbara who at age 2 years 11 months left this world due to DIPG. Her life meant the world to her mom, Elizabeth, her father and her older brother. The Foundation named in Julia’s honor raises awareness and research funding to fight this childhood disease (brain stem tumors) which currently has no cure. Through The Julia Barbara Foundation’s efforts we hope to change DIPG’s prognosis.

    I’m so thankful my children are grown, and I can leave the worry of most of the things that can remove them from this world.  Elizabeth Krammer Psar told us about her daughter Julia Barbara who almost lived to be three years old.  She expired from an illness from which there is no cure and since only about 400 children die from this each year there aren’t enough to warrant lots of study.  It starts as a brain stem tumor and unless you’re really on your toes the symptoms will not only get by you but your doctor also. In the end it won’t make a difference but hopefully with people like Elizabeth things will improve.  Not the most fun speaker we’ve had recently but one that really made you think. Brain tumors are now the leading cause of cancer related deaths in children ages 1–19.

    I attended (along with several other Sertomans) the dinner with Tamika Catchings. Am I the only person that didn’t know she received 4 gold medals? And she was drafted by the Indiana Fever where she played from 2001 to2016. She gave a most inspiring speech and will be coaching a basketball clinic they auctioned off and Dr. Joe Johnson and Holly Warwick each donated $4,000 to fund.  What are our chances of getting them to attend Oktoberfest next year?

    Next Week:  We will have Nlola Radford, Ph.D. who is the Director of Clinical Education and Clinical Research.

    Housekeeping:  Jason Grahl read the prayer, Allie Harmon led the pledge and with 10 out of 10, Rusty Farrell won the grid pick and then just to make the rest of us look bad, he donated the money back to the club.

  • Morton Massey | The Big Year | October 5th

    Morton Massey | The Big Year | October 5th

    I had no idea bird watching was as involved or dedicated as it is. Morton Massey gave us a real education or where, when and how to do this. One of the best places is around sewage plants – who knew? Also, these people keep track of where they have seen what and call each other to report, at which point they jump in their cars and take off to places like Memphis? Memphis is not exactly next-door folks, you must be pretty determined to make that trip.  Morton has visited 95 counties this year. 87 state parks with 3200 different birds.  That’s dedication.

    Next Week:  Bradley Reeves with Cinegraphic Archives and Preservation.  I think this will be another trip down memory lane.

    Board Meeting: Tuesday at 6 pm. All are welcome, Dutch treat

    It’s Here! Friday is the big day for Oktoberfest. Plan to see all of you there and we’ll each feel sorry for ourselves when we don’t win the $5000.

     

    Mark your calendars: On the 18th we will meet at the Southern Railway.

    Housekeeping:  Alan Stuckey read the prayer and Chris Hoosier led the pledge.

  • Kelsie Critenton – The Arc Knox County | August 9th

    Kelsie Critenton, human resource and marketing for The Arc Knox County was formally with the March of Dimes.  We are familiar with the organization known as the Sunshine Center on Central Avenue Pike. Founded in 1953 they offer vocational training and services for people with intellectual disabilities in Knox County; safeguarding their rights and protecting their welfare.  Jobs consist of packaging, collating and simple assembly and persons are paid by the job or by the hour, or by the piece. One of their customers is Clinique and they package their makeup brushes that are sent all over the United States.  Transportation is the responsibility of the participant and could include public transportation.  They also maintain independent living residence with the goal to teach residents to live, shop and maintain their own house with all that entails to include shopping for food, cooking and cleaning. They also offer weekly activities; she made it sound so good I was ready to sign up.

    Bert West, Ron Grimm, Mike Simpson, and Brett Grimm participated in a function to help the Helen Ross McNabb Center. Don’t know what it was but apparently a good time was had by all.

    Next Week:  Sandra Clark will be our speaker. I believe our neighbors plan to join us also.  Sandra worked with my ex-husband at the Journal and they joined forces to purchase the Halls Shopper.  She finally got the money to buy him out and the rest is history. She and the Shopper are indirectly responsible for us being in the printing business.  Small world.

    I stand corrected: you can teach and old dog a new trick! After my remark concerning not knowing who read the prayer or led the pledge, our President presented me with this information after the meeting.  Thank You!

    Mike Simpson read the prayer and Ron Grimm led the pledge. We had one visitor, Bob Davis who was checking us out to see what we do different as he was from the South Knoxville club. Bert West got his feet wet as the new Sargent at Arms but nobody told me why Caroline bailed on us.

     

    Free to a good home: Six (6) months old puppy, combination of Border Collie and German Sheppard.  The jury is still out on which dog is the smartest between the Border Collie or Jack Russell but I speak from experience the Border Collie puppy has more energy. They do, however, make great dogs and I would think this combination would be super. Let me know if you’re interested. My # is 865.640.5889.