District foundation acknowledgements

I would like to thank Lt. Gov. Larry Meegan of Division 4 for having the clubs in his division participate in the NJ Foundation's Annual Gift Campaign. Three clubs of Division 8 donated a total of $850. A special thanks to the Jackson Club for their contribution of $500.00, resulting in a giving level of over $15.00 per member.

Thanks to Division 5 Lt. Gov. Sue Philpot for having 6 clubs in her division participate in the NJ Foundation's Annual Gift Campaign. Those 6 clubs donated a total of $880.

In other Division 4 and Division 5 news, the following clubs recently made contributions to the Children's Specialized Hospital Project:

Kiwanis Club of Jackson $1,000.
Kiwanis Club of Asbury Park: $500.
Kiwanis Club of Shadow Lake Village: $500.
Kiwanis Club of Greenbriar $917.40
Donations made at Governor's Visit: $215.

Just a reminder that a club will receive recognition with a banner patch for a contribution of $250.00 or more to the Children's Specialized Hospital Project.

On behalf of the NJ Foundation Board, I would again like to thank everyone for their hard work and continued support of the Foundation.

Rudy Fernandez.
President, NJ Kiwanis Foundation

New Kiwanis club to be chartered 1/31 & you're invited!

To the District Board,

Please reserve the date and join us on Saturday, January 31, 2009, for the Charter Luncheon for the newest club in the District. The NJ Young Professionals Kiwanis Club was organized on December 6th and will be the third new club chartered in this administrative year.

The buffet luncheon will be held at CAMBRIDGE INN, 19 SUMMERHILL ROAD, SPOTSWOOD, NJ 08884, beginning at 1 p.m. Cost is $30 per person.

Please make your reservations no later than Saturday, January 24th with Crystal via phone: 732-966-5728 or via email: crystalbarton819@yahoo.com

We hope to see you at the chartering of the first Young Professionals Kiwanis Club in New Jersey.

Kindest regards,

Gwen Walding
District Secretary

@ the governor's dinner

KC o' J had seven members attend the Governor's Dinner Dec. 10 at Doolan's in Spring Lake Heights Dec. 11. Thanks to Fran, Ted & Carol, Laura, Floyd, and Michael for supporting the district.

We presented three checks (KI Foundation, district foundation and CSH) to Dean who forwarded them to District Treasurer Marc who will forward them to District Foundation Treasurer Ted.

It was an exciting night. Dean had the pleasure of inducting three new members (one into the Wall Club and two -sisters!- into the Kiwanis Club of Asbury Park.

11 clubs sent representatives, five of them from our division.

I have posted 9 photos from the dinner onto my Flickr account I suggest you select "slideshow" in the upper right hand side of the page, sit back and enjoy the photos.

2008 KCOJ Breakfast with Santa

What a great day! We had lots and lots of people attend our annual Breakfast with Santa today. Thanks to all who helped Saturday night with the set up and to all who helped today with cooking, cleaning up, collecting money, gathering up supplies and being gracious hosts. Also thanks to our Key Clubs from Biotech, Memorial and Liberty high schools. And we had an interclub from TCNJ's Circle K club!

I have a couple of photos from the day on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157610883058246/ You can scroll through them individually or you can hit "slideshow" on the upper right hand side of the box.

I'll let Donna report in the "comments" section of this blog on the stats from the event.

BTHS Holiday breakfast

Biotech High School's Key Club hosted its annual holiday breakfast this morning. They had a great turnout. The food was great! The music was great! And the silent auction had a great selection. President Fran & I attended. Thanks all for a great time together.

"Nobody Asked"

Nobody Asked!

Nobody asked, but I thought that I would share a piece of my mind….not that there is all that much left to share.

Nobody asked the speaker at our club to join us the following week and to become a member, so that speaker never came back.

Nobody asked the shy man who stumbled upon the lunch meeting if he would like to join us in the reading we do for Head Start each week, so he didn’t.

Nobody asked the wife of the long-time member who died recently if she would like to be a part of the organization her husband valued so highly, so she sat home alone.

Nobody asked what the new member did for a living, or how many kids she had or what she liked to do when she wasn’t volunteering or working, so she stopped coming.

Nobody asked the man who was so busy with kids, church, work, and life, if he wanted to put an umbrella over all of that and join with others who could give him some help, so he kept on doing what he was doing, and it never occurred to him that a Kiwanian might help him.

Nobody asked me, but I think we all need to remember…..JUST ASK…. That’s what it’s all about!

Mary Villalba
Past Distinguished Governor
Rocky Mountain Kiwanis District
(Used by permission of Kiwanis, Rocky Mountain District)

Grandpappy Stan

Stan and Joan became grandparents for the 8th time when Sarah Abigail Dolan was born on Thanksgiving.
"They say she's beautiful," said Stan. "They say she looks like my wife so she has to be beautiful."
Great news Stan!
BTW, Stan's off for a bit cooking in hunting camp.

1 of our Key Clubs is hosting a fund raiser

Biotech High School Key Club (5000 Kozloski Road, Freehold NJ 07728), sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Jackson, will host its second annual "Holiday Brunch" Saturday De. 6 from 10 a.m. until 12:30. The cost is $5 per person and all proceeds will go to Children's Specialized Hospital. It will be a time for family fun, food and some goo holiday joy! E-mail the club at BiotechKeyClub@yahoo.com if you have any questions. This is a great opportunity to take part in a Kiwanis family project. And it can qualify as an Interclub!

Midwinter & conventions news

We held our second district board meeting this past weekend at Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick. Among the items discussed were the major upcoming meetings: Midwinter conference, International Convention and District Convention.

Midwinter will be held Feb. 28 at the Marriott in New Brunswick. Registration is $33, down $2 from last year, is due Feb. 15. For those who want to stay overnight the room cost is $99 plus room tax.

Stan Sonderman, who spoke at our district convention in August, will do the major program, a growth seminar. It will be followed by lunch and an awards ceremony. A board meeting will be held after Midwinter for those of us lucky enough to be on the board.

KI Trustee Ed Hutchinson (past district governor and secretary) told us the international convention will be held in Nashville June 26 (Thursday) and ends Saturday June 28. I have asked LtG-elect Barney to look into chartering a bus. It would leave NJ late Tuesday night and arrive at the hotel around 1 p.m. Wednesday, in time for people to register at the hotel and at the convention center.

We will be staying at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel which is the VIP headquarter’s hotel. It will be a great opportunity to meet Kiwanians from around the world. Unlike the last time we were in Nashville (1997) we will be extremely close to the convention center.

Cost for a double or single is $162 per night plus a 15.25% room tax and a $2 per room city tax.

The NJ District will have a district dinner Thursday evening. More details will be given in January.

Our district’s quota this year is 90. I think that is doable with members just from our division. Of course, then we’d have to charter two buses.

Convention registration fees are:
Kiwanis member before May 2, 2009, $195; after May 1 it is $250. Guest: before May 2, $95; after that it is $125. Registration should start around Jan. 1.

Start saving up now. More information will come from KI and the district around the beginning of the new year.

The 2009 District Convention will be held Aug. 21 to Aug. 23 at the Westin Hotel in Princeton. The convention committee will meet early in the winter. I will tell you more when I know more.

KCOJ Wine Tasting

The Kiwanis Club of Jackson will host a fundraiser for high school scholarships and Children's Specialized Hospital Friday, Nov. 20 starting at 6:30. "Fine Wine with Food" will be held at The View Restaurant at the Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Lakewood. The cost is $50 per person.

There will be over 80 different wines to taste. We will also have carving and pasta stations, fruit, cheese and a bread board.

We will also host a silent auction.

Tickets can be purchased at Plaza Wines & Liquors in Jackson or from any member of the Kiwanis Club of Jackson. Call (7332) 367-1199 for more information.

November club meetings

We have some special news about our meeting locations this month.

Our first meeting, Nov. 13, will be held at Laurita Winery out near New Egypt. Carol's brother Randy is co-owner of the county's newest gathering center. Directions can be found at their Web site - http://www.lauritawinery.com/ We have invited clubs from the division to attend and hope that we will have a great turnout. But you need to tell Ted by Monday (11/10) if you'll be there. His E-mail address is cthordichuk@aol.com . It will be a great meeting and the winemaker will tell us about winemaking

Our second meeting will be held a week early this month because of Thanksgiving. We will meet at Michael and Ingrid Rice's home Nov. 20. Free pizza and salad dinner for the members.

The Gourment Club

We seem to have developed a group of fine diners in the club who have taken to meeting at diffeent dining opportunities lately. On Sunday President Fran, Treasurer Donna, soon-to-be-named-to-some post Al and I attended the benefit breakfast for Angel David Santos at the Larson Road Firehouse. And now a couple of us are going to meet up at the Italian-American Club's Friday night dinner this Friday. Anyone else is welcome to attend! I think it starts around 6 p.m. and the cost is about $10 per person. They sell wine on the premises.

I hope it's a quantity over quality dinner!

Larry

Team Kiwanis @ Komen Walk

Here are a few pics of team Kiwanis before the Komen walk. It was a beautiful day. Earlier that morning Pearl represented Team K in the 5K and finished in 29:53! She really did great. She beat her Mom who ran 34:25 but in her defense, Diane had a cold. (She says she is resigned to the fact that Pearl probably would have beat her anyway).

Cost saving request

This morning Fran, Donna & I worked on a budget for the club. We rrealized that we spent a lot of money for Jackson Day supplies, especially for sand art and then realized that we'd need plastic containers for next year, if we do it. So, in order to save money I suggest something that we all can do to pitch in: save those Mrs. Butterworth and Honey Bear containers. Be sure they are the clear plastic kind. Kids won't be too happy that they're filling the dark amber ones unless they use white sand, and that would mean we would have to go and purchase a bunch more white sand.

I have taken the liberty of photographing the Honey Bear so you will know what I'm talking about. Also, modesty prevented me from taking a bottom view. Kids my be viewing this blog. But I think you'll know what I mean from the other three photographs.


You all know how serious I am all the time! Always thinking, the wheels are always turning.

Interclub with Daybreak

Thank you so much for your support of the Daybreak club. We had an Interclub with them Thursday night during their officer installation. Attending were Ted & Carol, Stan and Joan, Michael Rice and Donna Corman.

It was a lot of fun and I know they appreciated it. In fact, we had six of the seven clubs from the division present: OLV, LBI, Brick, Toms River, us and of course Daybreak. One of my goals this year is to have every club in the division earn the LtG's Interclub award. This was a great start for everybody and it's a testament to the hard work initiated by Stan and John Hale this past year. Thanks to both of them.

Daybreak also had KI-trustee Ed Hutchinson, District Governor Mike Mulhaul, District Foundation Rudy Fernandez and past governor Marty, who was instrumental in forming the Daybreak and our club, present.


Sometimes I think it's a race between Ted & myself (though I probably fltter myself just saying this) when it comes to wearing Kiwanis hats. Right now, Ted's in the lead: he wasjust appointed Circle K administrator and he was installed onto the District Foundation's board. Uncle! Uncle!

Congratulations Ted, and thanks for all you do to make this such a great organization. Of course, I could gain a hat or two if someone wants to step up and wrestle one or two away from him. The district is alsways looking for people to step up and fill leadership roles. Just check with us and we'll show you how.

Thursday Sept. 11 meeting

We had three special speakers at our Sept. 11 meeting: Biotech Key Club president Erin Coats, Circle K new-club building chair Emily Madera who told us about new club building in our area (OCC & GCU), and Circle K district governor Kristen Aitkins.
There are currently 9 Circle K clubs in the NJ district with a total of 240 members. (Take a look at the Division 4 blog for information about the new OCC Circle K club: http://nj-div4-ltg.blogspot.com/ )
Great turnout for the meeting – 18 members and 3 guests. And, congratulations to our newest member: Sabrina Forano from Investors Savings Bank. Welcome Sabrina.
We have one more program scheduled for this admin year. Floyd is bringing in the Navy. Well, not quite. But he is bringing in the Coast Guard to explain their programs.

Jackson PBA Pig Roast

Hey all,

Great time at the Jackson PBA Pig Roast this morning & afternoon. Thanks to all who helped, including: Fran, Floyd & Carmila, Mike & Ingrid, Al, Laura & Sabrina, Glen, Lou, Dan and friends of the club Walt and Tim.
I posted over 80 photos on Flickr. Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157607275343934/show/ . As before, I suggest you put it on "slideshow" in the upper right hand side of the page and let 'em scroll by.
It was a smokey day. I changed my clothes before going tot he opening of Laurita Winery and I still smelled like a smokey cheeseburger.

Jackson Day 2008

This was the perfect way to start off Jackson Day. Laurie Smith, head of the Jackson Township Commission for the Disabled and Handicapped told me while we were setting up the sand art table, "I want to thank the Kiwanis Club of Jackson for every thing they do. If it wasn't for your club we wouldn't be able to do half the things we do. Thank you Kiwanis."

The commission is starting a flag football team and you know how mischievous I can be. Wouldn't it be great if we could get a team of former NFL stars to scrimmage them? Who do we know?

Laurie wasn't the only one who was grateful for the Kiwanis Club of Jackson. I was, too. It was so gratifying to see so many people turn out to help. Thanks to our club members: Fran, Ingrid, Laura Johnson & Blasi, Carmela, Mary Jo, Al and Joann. Also to our logisticians Glenn and Lou. To our organizers Mike, Floyd and Donna. And to the members who did so much to set everything in motion: Lois (who makes a mean vegetarian chili), Ted & Carol, and Paul. Thanks to our three Key Clubs and two Builders Clubs. And to our visiting members Dan, Vickie and some cutie they claim is their grand daughter. How can Dan & Vickie be grand parents? We also had a visit from Maggie and her husband Julian.
There was only one thing missing from this year's Jackson Day, and Ingrid said it so well when she asked, "Where's Dean." No one else could mix funnel cake batter like Dean. You were missed Dean.

Between the three booths we collected more than $1,750. I know where $25 of that came from. Those "Walking Tacos" were great!

I have some photos from Jackson Day. You can view them on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157607187227972/show/ Once again, click on "slideshow" on the top right and watch them a time or two.

More district convention photos

I finally got the chance to download 75 photos from the NJ District Convention onto Flickr. Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157607062556698/ I suggest you hit "slideshow" in the upper right hand of the page and the photos will automaticly advance.

Another Interclub!

Floyd, Mary Jo & I slipped the surly bonds of Point Pleasant Beach's dock Thursday and particpated in Circle K's inaugural fireworks cruise. The wind was blowing the wrong way and we had to forego the fireworks, but no problem. We spent two hours off the coast. Wait a minute, isn't that how The Minnow in Gilligan's Island started off? "A two-hour tour, a two-hour tour - the weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed..."
Also joining us were Mary Jo's husband Bruce and my Mom Dolores.

BTW, I'm not getting seasick in that one photo. I just look like that normally.

Cookin' the Night Away

Okay, so we didn't hear much of Sam Cooke at Saturday night's Battle of the Bands. In fact we didn't hear any of that 50's & 60's stuff. But we did grill up some hot dogs and fry funnel cakes for the Key Club's Battle of the Bands contest last night. The Battle was a Key Club fundraiser for Children's Specializled Hospital.

Thanks to our club memebers for helping out: Lois, Ted & Carol, Donna, Stan, Al, Glen, Mike and special star of the night: Lou. Without Lou we wouldn't have figured out that it was a loose wire that prohibited us from lighting the burners.

Go to Fllickr for more photos. http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/?saved=1 And sorry Donna. For some reason the photo I took of our money collector was all blurry.

Congratulations to us

Let me start out by congratulating President Stan and our club. During Sunday morning's awards program our club received honors in 5 of the 6 Interclub contests, and they are a tribute to the hard work and example Stan set for us. Here's how we did it: In the "We Build" contest, awarded for conducting the most interclubs in our division (49): in the Lt. Governor's Award, awarded for interclubbing with every club in our division; in the New Jersey District Award for the most interclubs in the District (we were second by only 1 Interclub to Greater Parsippany; in the How Far contest we came in third (106) miles losing to only Cape May Court House (4,000 miles to Scotland) and Sparta (700 miles to Myrtle Beach); and we were tied for third with Atlantic City for the How Big Awardgiven for having the most members attend an Interclub. And you know, we're not finished! We had an Interclub at convention: Paul & Debby Tarantino, Floyd & Carmella Adams, Ted & Carol Hordichuk, and me!

How can we make it 6 of 6? To win the Governor's Award we need to have everybody attend an Interclub. Now, that's not as hard as it sounds. We could all attend a sponsored youth program, right?

Books for Kobe (Japan, that is)

I received this note from Dr. Wil Blechman, former KI president and the one who started Young Children Priority One. Perhaps we can help out?

Please read following from Miki Cunat, former First Lady of Kiwanis International

Dear Fellow Kiwanian and Partners:

We need your HELP! The Kobe Kiwanis Club of Japan
District is setting up a section of Children’s Books from
Around the World Corner in the Kobe City Library in Kobe,
Japan. As you may know the city of Kobe is the second major
well known city in Japan for foreigners for over a hundreds
years. Even though many families from overseas are living
comfortably in the city, unfortunately there is no section in the
library to accommodate the foreign children. Kobe Kiwanis
Club is asking for your help in making this dream possible by
building up the books for this section in your language through
the friendship of Kiwanis around the world. Of course, Kobe
Kiwanians will purchase some books, but supplies are limited
and expensive. This project will also benefit many hundreds of
Japanese children living in the area. Thus we would like you
to help with this “Kobe International Children’s Library”
project as a part of “Reading Around the World” (YCPO). We
are asking each club to donate 10-20 books, or individual
Kiwanis member to donate 1or 2 books. The age group would
be 2-12 years old. We highly recommend finding excellent
picture books for younger children and reading books for older
children. The award winning books would be ideal! Your
Kiwanis club can participate in two different ways: Kiwanis
club would like to purchase the books or each member donates
1 or 2 books.

1. Please send directly to: Kobe Kiwanis Club, c/o Kobe
Mercantile Trading Center Building, 5-1-14 Hamabe-dori,
Chuo-ku, Kobe-city 651-0083, JAPAN
Phone number: 078-251-6530 Email address:
kobekiwanis@isis.ocn.ne.jp
OR
Please send to me: Miki Cunat , 5400 W. Elm St., McHenry,
IL.
Phone number: 815-385-3192 (office) Email address:
mikicunat@yahoo.com

Please indicate:
Kiwanis Logo
Donated by: (name) Kiwanis Club
City, State/Region, etc.
Country

On behalf of Kobe Kiwanis club and hundreds of children in
Kobe, I sincerely appreciate your generosity and participation
of this project. If you have any further questions, please
contact me via email above.

Yours in Kiwanis Service,


Miki Cunat
2001-2002 First Lady
2008-2009 YCPO Committee
Kiwanis International

JLHS Key Club car wash

Jackson Liberty High School Key Club held a car wash fundraiser Aug.3 at Applebee's in Howell. From Donna we learn, "the day could not have been more lovely and we had a nice surprise of the Politos bringing not 1, not 2 but THREE family cars to support our efforts to raise funds for Children's Specialized Hospital (and when I say we, I did not wash a single car, but Sophia was right in there scrubbing away, as we had 3 and 4 cars at a time at some points!)"

Great job you guys!

Night out Against Crime

C'mon now, what do we Kiwanians like to do most? Cook! And we had the chance to once again strut our culinary skills by cooking for the Jackson Police Department's Night out Against Crime. It was part of a national event that helps neighbors meet their police officers and the various first responders in the township.
Like in years past, we were the easy ones to find: just look for the smoke. And where there's smoke, there's us!
I checked with Paul and after all was said and done we cooked about 900 pices of food: hotdogs and hamburgers. And we distributed a lot of water.
Thanks to all who helped: Paul & Debby, Lois, Laura and Sabrina, Stan & Joan, Fran, Carol & Ted (who distributed WHALE Project kits under the big top. And thanks for members who stopped by to show their support: Bernadette and Rick.

You know, we keep gettiing better at this. The one thing we had to contend with was the breeze that blew the smoke into the cooks' eyes. And we beat the rain. The weather forecasters were predicting rain for the early evening hours but we beat the showers and stayed dry.
PS. The top photo appeared on the APP.com Website Wednesday.

Kiwanis Night at the BlueClaws

We had a great night out at the BlueClaws game. It was the second largest crowd they ever had, more than 9500 in attendance. The fireworks were great, according to our club's professional pyromaniac Floyd. And the kept us wondering if The Boss was going to show up. Alas, neither he nor the BlueClaws (in a manner of speaking)did. But we had a great time anyway.
Thanks to Floyd and Donna for assisting with the 50/50 ticket sales.
And the Jackson Handicap Commission made sure to stop by and thank us for our donation of the tickets for their people.

Mini-golf tournament of champions (of sorts)

Including family members we had 15 people show up for our mini-golf outing Thursday evening (July 23.) We kind of lost track of the scores. I had the lowest score, but then again I didn't play about 6 or 7 holes. Everyone did pretty well on the handicap, too. Our newest member Carmellia Adams had 6 right! Going to the KI convention certainly helped. The ringer Diane Polito had 2 hole-in-ones.
Mulligans were used one the first hole. I think I see how we can just about fund the CSH building program: sell Mulligans at a buck each.
Among our handicapping questions: 1) Where is the KI office located? 2) Who is the NJ District governor? 3) Who is the president of KCOJ? 4) What is your favorite color? 5) How many people are needed for an Interclub? 6) Name 2 ssponsored programs KCOJ supports? 7) Who is the KI president this year? 8) How many financial accounts does KCOJ have? 9) Name three clubs in our division. 10) Who is our division's LtG? 11) Where ws this year's KI convention held? 12) Who is KCOJ's secretary? 13) Who won this year's Superbowl? 14) What is KI's 2-word motto? 15) How many Objects does Kiwanis have? 16) Who will be KCOJ's next prresident? 17) Who will be next year's LtG for the division? 18) What is Kiwanis's main emphasis? See below for the answers.
We broke midway through the tournament for pizza. A grueling day on the links will take the best out of you.
I will have a link to some photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22036136@N07/sets/72157606413287655/ Cllick and paste the link into your browser and then hit "slideshow" in the upper right when you get to the Flickr page.
Answers: 1) Indianapolis. 2) Mike Mulhaul 3) Stan 4) your choice 5) 2, 3 or 4, depending upon the size of the club 6) Key Club, Builder's Club, Circle K, K-Kids 7) Dave Curry 8) we agreed it's more than 2 but less than 5 9) Brick, TR, TR-Daybreak, Original Leisure Village, Leisure Village West, LBI, Greenbriar 10) John Hale 11) Orlando 12) Lois 13) The Giants 14) "We Build" 15) 6 16) Fran 17) Stan 18) children