The Knoxville Downtown Sertoma Club

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Jerry Winston | Oct 30th | NASCAR racing

KNOXVILLE DOWNTOWN SERTOMA CLUB

WEDNESDAY, 10/30/19 MEETING

VOLUME 69 #32

 

Prayer:  Carol Mohney

Pledge:  Terrell Kerr

Guest from  UT Speech and Hearing Department was Teresa Vaughn.

Bert West introduced his speaker, our own Jerry Winston.  Jerry has been racing cars since the early 1950s.  He took a motor off his dad’s lawnmower and put wagon wheels on it and drove it until the motor quit or it ran out of gas!  When he was 16 every Friday and Saturday they met on Broadway to drag race.  He attended Skip Barber’s 4 day school to train drivers and he graduated best in his class!  He went to Savannah, GA to get a novice permit.  He ran two regional races and got his professional license.  He then got invited to be on a team to ride in the Daytona.  The whole race was set up on computers to tell them when to stop and get gas.  Some drivers there did not have that, including Jerry’s team.  In 1987 he raced in an unlimited course with A J Foyt who was driving in the 210 – 250 MPH course.  Jerry was driving in the 110 – 170 MPH class.  A lot of cars broke down.  Jerry was lined up to qualify in Charlotte and he saw A.J Foyt in line to qualify and A J had fallen asleep.  His team woke him up when it was his turn to sign up!  A fire system was built in Jerry’s car.  The NASCAR drivers didn’t have them.  NASCAR didn’t care about safety.  NASCAR officials were looking for ways they were cheating.  Jerry’s uncle did the timing and scoring for their drivers because they didn’t have enough drivers on their team to be able to do that.  Jerry said Kyle Petty was one of the nicest guys in racing and was always willing to help.  Jerry’s team car was kept in Bobby Ellison’s area.  Jerry raced in the LaMaz and got to drive for 6 hours.  That was fun because in most races they got to drive only 2 hours.  But it was unnerving when someone flew past him driving 250 MPH!

Next week’s speaker is Libby Beidelschies from a group called “SPARK” and is a guest of Matt.

Sergeant at Arms Report:  13 members; 1 guest from UT S&H for a total attendance of 14.

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Nancy Strange and Sertoma Okctoberfest 2019

Nancy Strange | Oktoberfest 2019 | Sept 11th

Oktoberfest 2019

Nancy Brenan Strange- Emmmaculate Conception Catholic Church -Singing guest today. We also heard from our own Brett Grimm about Oktoberfest coming up October 18th #Sertoma #KnoxSertomaClub #Oktoberfest #Oktoberfest2019

I’m not sure what I expected from our performer, but she was fantastic!  Bob Rentenbach didn’t tell us but I take it they have been long-tern friends and she did a great job. Hopefully Bob will bring her back at some point.

Brett did a great job of telling us what we needed to do to get ready for Oktoberfest 2019, what he expected from each of us, no threats as to what he was going to do if we didn’t follow though. This is our big fundraiser and if we are going to continue with funding these projects, we need money.  Our job, sell tickets, get brown bag items, get at least one auction item.  We can do it!

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Eddie Mannis for Knoxville Mayor

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.

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Mr. Shannon Ball and Sarah with Wating to Hear

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.

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John D Cobb was our guest Eagle Scout along with members of the Knoxville Boy Scouts of America professional leaders

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

 

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Justin Lafferty with the 89th district state representative

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.

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Greg MacKay with Knox County Elections

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.

 

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Jimmy Hyams from WNML Sports Talk Radio

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.

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Chris Kerr was our guest speaker talking about all things UT Basketball

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.

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Lynn Fox Speaker May 1st about Women in TN history

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.

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