Tag: sertoma

  • Justin Biggs 11th District | August 30th

    One of Justin Biggs claims to fame, he got married on Good Morning America. He has decided to make the trustee’s office a career. Government service evidently runs in the family, his dad is chief deputy with the sheriff’s office. He has been with the trustee’s office for 12 years and collects not only our taxes but real and personal property taxes for businesses. They do all kinds of fun things with this money and by the way we get a new appraisal next year so we better be really good friends with Mr. Biggs. Don’t know if someone else is wanting the same job, we’ll have to wait and see.

    A couple of people complained about having to pay city and county taxes; I did too when I lived in the city but gave it up and moved to the county. If that doesn’t work the next time it comes up, vote for a metro government.

     

    Our own Dr. Asp shared with us his book has been translated into several different languages and that is just the beginning.  I think we already knew he was smarter than the average bear, this just proves it.

    Next week: Janet Bigelow is going to share some information about her dad that she’s sure we don’t know. As he was a good and faithful Sertoman for many years and his birthday is in September this is timely.

  • Speech and Hearing Month | Ellen Hamby & Katie Faulkner

    May 17:  Dr. Asp introduced Ellen Hamby who was the first female grad to come on board in 1977. The object was to improve life’s connections  for a forgotten population who had been locked up, locked away and locked in. Ridiculed, despised, feared, dehumanized and used for amusement. Aristole: let there be law that deformed child shall live. Serving people with intellectual disabilities; Knoxville has 12 group homes, 8 homes have 8 clients each. The day program serves 80 clients ranging in age from 8 to 84 with a severity of handicap from mild to profound.

    Report on the board meeting: It was determined to pass on the biscuit festival. We will look at it again next year.  We are greatly in need of sponsors for Oktoberfest, if you would like to attempt this all the paperwork is ready for you and you can be the “man of the hour”.

    May 24: Dr. Asp introduced Dr. Katie Faulkner who told us about the surgical procedure of the Cochlear Implant. This is a surgical prosthesis for both adults and children with profound hearing loss. It takes approximately a year from the time a person receives the implant until they are comfortable and able to hear normally and are released.  For a person that is unable to hear with regular hearing aids this is close to a miracle. Unfortunately, it cost about as much – around $80,000. Medicare for us old people will cover part of the cost.

    Housekeeping: 05/17 Jacob Tippens read the prayer, Jason Grahl led the pledge. We had one guest brought to us by Jacob Tippens; Matt Hall and he joined!  Carl Asp had an additional guest Dr. Nola Radford.

    07/24: Bob Rentenbach read the prayer, Jim Thompson led the pledge. We didn’t have a single visitor.

  • David Montgomery Presentation

    David Montgomery teaches non-credit courses at UT on landscaping and basically tells you which plant should go where. My mother in law could have used him, she just found and empty spot and by the time she passed that was no mean trick. I don’t know how he is at that but I can tell you he’s a hoot. He says he gives a “farmer’s guide to plaints in East Tennessee and he’s a collector of interesting and totally useless information.” He said he really couldn’t pass on anything useful but he invited us to come and take the course so UT could get paid and therefore pay him.  Seems reasonable.

    Next Week:  Carol Evans with Legacy Parks will be our speaker.

    Sunday is our St. Patrick’s Day Celebration and along with the time change which screws some of us up, the weatherman is calling for snow. In the event, he knows what he’s talking about and it really happens and the roads are bad – stay home. Otherwise the party starts at 5 with green beer and lots of good food. We are also going to have an addition this year of a piano player from the Knoxville Opera. If they gave his name, I missed it but don’t you miss him.

    Housekeeping: I read the prayer, Audrey Cowan led the pledge. We had Patti Johnston a professor from UT Speech and Hearing as our guest.

  • 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

  • Meeting 2-22-17

    Bert West brought us Kristopher Goddard who goes by Chris. He is currently attending UT but came to us with stories of what It’s like to be a medic in the service.  He received the “Angel on the Battlefield” Award for 2015 and they only award one. He began his military career at Sheppard Air Force base on his 21st birthday and spent the next 8 years of his life in the military, with 3 tours in Afghanistan. He pointed out that along with the soldiers they also treat the enemy and in one case this was a nine-year-old boy who had blown off the front half of his foot planting a bomb. He cursed and spit on him and tried to get his weapon (they are now allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves if it becomes necessary); he says they are taught from the cradle to hate us and never believe anything we say. Hard to win a war under those circumstances. After 8 years and 3 tours he returned home and was diagnosed with PTSD. He is recovering and is certainly one American we can be proud of.

    Report on the board meeting:  Finalized plans for St. Patrick’s Day, talked about plans for Don’t Walk in Silence and discussed whether we wanted to participate in the Biscuit Festival. In other words – same ole, same ole.

    Chris Hoosier gave us an update on the Veterans Memorial at Sharps Ridge. One of the persons responsible will be a speaker next month and hopefully will bring pictures. In the meantime, Chris says they have built both hiking trails and bicycle trails.

    Next Week: We will have Doug Bitzer, a deacon with the Immaculate Conception Church who will discuss Lent.

    Attendance has been down of late, however, this week we had a return of Janet Bigelow, John Cogdill, and Rick Murphree was in town and came by and had lunch with us.  Now if we could get some of the other “slackers” to join us we would be back to normal.

  • Meeting 11-30-16

    We literally went to the dogs this week with a program from Smoky Mountain Service Dogs. Mike Kitchens the Volunteer Chair and Laurie Birt the Community Events Coordinator brought “Hooligan” one of their canine ambassadors. He demonstrated his ability to pick up items, go find and retrieve things like a telephone, pick up a credit card that has been dropped, assist in getting up and down.  After completing training, each dog in their program is specifically matched with a recipient based on the person’s needs and the ability of the dog to serve those needs. All of the work that goes into making a service dog is done with volunteers only from raising puppies to the final stage of placing the dog. Occasionally they have a dog that is just not “suited” to be a service dog and they “assist” him to another career.

    Next Week:  The South Doyle Madrigal Singers. Good time to bring a friend or a perspective new member.  Be kind to Marianne and let her know if you are bringing several people.

    On a sad note:  Nancy Biddle, Allie Harmon’s friend, passed away. Her service is Saturday @ Sequoia Presbyterian.

    Also, our long time Sertoma member, Jim Key passed away.  I understand he had moved out of state to be close to a relative. Don’t have any information on his service.

    We conducted a drawing for those persons who had bought/sold a lot of tickets for Oktoberfest and the results were: Rusty Farrell got the UT tickets (which he had donated) Caroline Grimm won a UT picture and Jacob Tippens won a bottle of liquor.  Not to be outdone, Al Gill won the grid pick.

    Record keeping: Andy Schoerner read the prayer, Alan Stuckey led the pledge, we had Tricia Hatenger from UT and our Sertoman in Training Michelle Simpson.

    We will not meet December 21 and 28.

  • Meeting 11-16-16

    Bob Rentenbach introduced our speaker, Father David from Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Anyone traveling on Northshore is aware of the building they are in the process of constructing and evidently it will be massive. Twenty-eight thousand feet to be exact. He stated people ask why they are spending all that money on a building rather than giving it to the poor. He said each year the church invests over six million dollars to the poor and they believe a beautiful building will bring more people to Christ. This, of course, is the goal.  He is originally from Cleveland but has been in Knoxville since 2010. We have been invited to attend a service anytime it is convenient.

    Report on the board meeting:  Seems the meeting went over long (I was on a church trip and missed it) but the problem was in deciding the percentages we would be giving to our various charities. After much discussion, they decided on: Stockings from US 45.3%, UT Speech and Hearing 26.4% and the Sertoma Center 28.3%. We realized a net gain of $5148.from Oktoberfest. Stockings from US got the bigger piece of the pie as this is the only fund raiser that they participate in, whereas both UT Speech and Hearing and the Sertoma Center have other fund raisers to help them out during the year.  Both of my brothers were in service and away from home on Christmas (so was my ex-husband but we don’t count him) so I am of the opinion we can’t do enough. Jesus Christ and solders are the only ones who have offered to die for us. Per Rusty we all got an “atta boy”; every member bought a ticket and brought a brown bag item.

    Next week:  We will not have a speaker and we are joining up with the Kiwanis to share their speaker. Come and have lunch if you want too or since it’s the day before Thanksgiving we won’t hold it against you if you don’t show up.  On November 30 Andy Libby is responsible for the speaker and hasn’t shared with me who he has or if he has one.

    For the Record:  Julie Beeler from UT Speech and Hearing received the check Rusty presented. She said they appreciate what we do for them and it is making a difference in several students lives.

  • Meeting 11-9-16

    Lee Cottrell, our speaker, gave us another reason to protect our hearing. It’s now been connected to dementia which as you get older we worry about more than dying of cancer.  He says fifth million people have a hearing loss, more men than women and the older you get the more of a problem it becomes.  Hearing affects the quality of your life and if you have a problem you tend to be more withdrawn and basically withdrawn from social gatherings and people.  He went to show us some of the improvements in hearing aids but the cost is expensive and a lot of insurance will not cover it.  He was most grateful for our loaner program.  We may be glad of it in the future also.

    Board meeting, Tuesday, November 15 Chesapeake’s @ 6 pm

    Next week:  Father David from Sacred Heart Cathedral will be out speaker. He is brought to us by Bob Rentenbach. After the nasty way people have acted over the election I think we can use a calm voice. The week of Thanksgiving we will not have a meeting.  Mark your calendars so you don’t show up to find out nobody is here.  The first week of December will be our annual Christmas program with the Doyle High School Madrigal Singers. This is always a highlight of the season and a good time to bring friends or perspective members (or both).

    Record keeping:  Chris Kerr read our prayer, Allie Harmon led the pledge. Chris brought his wife Karen, Mike McKinney brought his wife Catherine, our representative from UT was Katie Faulkner, Associate Profession of Audiology and Brett Grimm brought a friend and brand new lawyer Patrick O’Neal.

  • Meeting 11-2-16

    Our speaker, Tony Nownes, certainly left you with the impression he knew what he was talking about. He said the one question he gets the most often right now is “how in the Hell did we end up with these two candidates?”  I would be one of the people asking.  His opinion is we will end up with Hillary which may have made a couple of people in the room happy – at least two that I know of, but left the rest of us shaking our head.  There are a couple of states with early voting that if you change your mind after you have voted you can change it. I like that idea even though I’m happy with the way I voted. He stated voter fraud was not a problem but depending on the outcome we may go through the “hanging chad” one more time.

    Next Week:  Rusty is bringing Lee Cotrell, an audiologist in Farragut.

    We had a called board meeting to decide how much money to send to Stockings from US.  As we still don’t know exactly how much money we made on Oktoberfest we determined to send the same amount as last year and if we have more later we can always send another check.  She must buy, stuff and send now for the soldiers to receive by Christmas so we were “under the wire” to decide.  Andy assures us we made more this year but exact figures were not available. The next regular board meeting will be on November 15 if you want to come and find out the exact amount.

    Housekeeping: Caroline Grimm prayed, Mike McKinney led the pledge, Jason Grahl won the grid pick and donated the money to Stockings from US. Tony Nownes brought his wife Elsa with him, our only visitor and Jason rearranged the tables and most liked it the new look.

  • Meeting 10-28-16

    Meeting 10-28-16

    Joe Guy spoke about the Battle of Athens and even though it was before his time he obviously had done his homework.  A group of returning soldiers got tired of the election being “rigged” and determined to do something about it.  Evidently there were several people that kinda liked things the way they were and per the pictures didn’t hesitate to show their displeasure.  The good guys won.

    Report on the board meeting:  All the figures are not in to determine the outcome of Oktoberfest, hopefully we will get those soon. We talked about a service project and determined to do the Meals on Wheels again. If you didn’t participate the last time, I encourage you to come this time. Not hard to do and you meet a lot of nice people.  For a social we are considering a trip to see the Ice Bears. The next naturalization ceremony will be held Nov. 4th at 9, 11 and 1:30 at the downtown courthouse and I do hope I have the date right. Kudos go to Andy Libby who was in the hospital and left to attend the board meeting.

    John Kerr donated tickets for a UT game, good seats.  $10 each or 3/$25. See John for all the details.

    Next Week:  Allie Harmon is bringing his neighbor who just happens to be a professor of political science at UT, Tony Downs.

    We will have a called board meeting after the meeting 11/02. You will need to stay an additional 10 minutes.

    Housekeeping:  Jerry Faerber prayed, Bert West led the pledge. We had two visitors: David Kerr and Randy Webb both compliments of Chris Kerr. And Jacob Tippens won the grid pick.