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| Buddy Dixon directing |
After dinner, a short meeting, emceed by acting President Bill Patterson, was held. The membership approved the donations for this year as proposed by the Mens Club Board. The amounts and the beneficiaries are:
St. Johns School - $500, Our Lady of Fatima School - $500, McCauley Center - Meals On Wheels - $1000, Paul Bewie Boys & Girls Club - $1000, Jackson House - $1000, Samaritan Ministries - $1000, Sacred Heart Christmas Baskets - $1200. Ed Keearns, Director of the Christmas Basket program was in attendance and was presented with a check for $1200 for this program.
Buddy Dixon then presented a proposal for a trip to Crystal Bridges Museum Of American Art in Bentonville, AR. The proposed trip would occur on April 15 - 16, 2013, and would include on April 15 a guided tour of the museum, a guided tour of the Norman Rockwell Exhibit, which opens in March of next year at the museum, tours on April 16 of the Walmart Welcome Center, Museum of Native American History, and then a train ride from Springdale, AR to Van Buren, AR and a bus ride back to the Village. Cost of the trip is $210 single occupancy, $260 double occupancy. The trip is being offered exclusively to members of the Mens Club, their wives, and widows of previous members until January 15, 2013. After that it will be opened up to other members of the parish. Contact Buddy Dixon at 501-922-2811 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.
After this presentation Buddy Dixon directed his 12 elves in a rendition of the 12 Day Of Christmas, which was enjoyed by all.
Deacon John Froning closed the meeting with a prayer.
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| Late seating waiter Mike Kerwin visiting a table. |
Approximately 40 members of the Mens Club, besides the kitchen crew, served as tickets takers, waiters, Refreshment Center tenders, kitchen coordinators, take out helper, and setup crew. Bob Heisler was the overall coordinator for the Chicken Bake and is congratulated for a great job. Also Rick Hiemenz and his crew are to be congratulated on preparing and serving a great meal .
If you didn't make it to the Chicken Bake, be sure and attend the other major fund raiser for the Mens Club, the Fish Bake, which will be on March 22, 2013.
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| Buddy Dixon and Dannett Botkin At Mens Club Kickoff Dinner |
The Mens Club supplied brats, sauerkraut, and condiments and those attending supplied the rest of the meal. After dinner, a short meeting was conducted prior to the evenings speaker.
Dannett Botkin, Marketing Manager for the POA had talked to the Mens Club last year and was invited back to update us on the current status of the POA's efforts to market the Village both locally and nationally. After her speech, Fr. Bill talked to us briefly about the house of formation opening and then led us in a closing prayer.
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| Arkansas Travelers fans from Sacred Heart enjoy the game at Dickey-Stephens ballpark. |
Upon arrival at the ballpark the buses stopped just outside the park next to the pavilion where everyone was served all the hamburgers, hotdogs, and baked beans they could eat. By game time at 7:10 PM everyone was seated in their reserved seats. The Arkansas Travelers were behind for much of the game but came back and won it by a score of 5 to 4 with 2 runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
During the game Linda Good won a pizza presented by the Traveler’s mascot, one of our group won an Arkansas Traveler shirt (they actually caught it when it was shot from an air gun toward our group), and someone in our group caught a foul ball to take home as a souvenir. The game ended shortly after 10:00 PM and the group returned to the buses for the return trip to the Village, arriving there about 11:30 PM, tired, but all seemed to have a great time.
On the trip over to Little Rock, the participants were asked to guess the number of paid admissions to the game, with a prize of a $20 gift certificate for the closest estimate on each bus. On the trip back to the Village, Dorothy Weber won on Bus #1 and Scott Krantz’s grandson won on bus #2.
Fr. Bill was able to attend the dinner, leading us in grace before the meal, but due to a death of a friend’s relative in Conway, had to leave before the game to attend the rosary. Many thanks to Buddy and Martha Dixon for all their work and especially to Buddy for all the details he worked out and the great idea for the Crackerjacks.
Check the Men's Club Photos for more pictures of this event. Let’s do this again next year!
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| Ed Voss, Dick Hill, Jim Passe, & Chuck Ralph cooking at Steak Dinner |
Members of the Men’s Club that were leaders of the various committees were recognized, as well as the outgoing officers for this year and the incoming officers for next year. After the winning quartet from the Valentine Day party lead us in a rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame”, and a reminder to sign up for the Men’s Club sponsored baseball trip to Little Rock on June 4th, the dinner was closed by those attending forming a circle along the walls of the lower hall and singing the hymn “Let There Be Peace On Earth”.
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| Getting ready to serve the meal at the Samaritan Ministries’ facility are (l. to r.) Bob Heisler, Kathleen Nosek, Dick Hill, Janice Spaniel, Marvin Young, Milt Spaniel and Greg Rogers. |
Click the Photos tab for more photos of this event.
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| Father Bill Elser, Pastor, greets guest at the Sacred Heart Men’s Club Fish Bake. |
Click the Photos tab for more photos of this event.
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| Guests enjoying the fish dinner being served at the Fish Bake. |
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| Dannet Botkin explains the new Resident Ambassador Program to the Sacred Heart Men’s Club at the club’s March meeting. |
A survey of those who recently moved into the Village shows that over 50% chose Hot Springs Village after learning about it from a friend or family that lives here. Recognizing this trend, a new program has been established called a Resident Ambassador. This program is offered to encourage residents to expose their family and friends to the Village and to qualify for discounts and prizes. There are other special and unique activities planned to gain exposure to the Village including such things as a Media Day, a Triathlon in June, States Weeks where visitors from a state can use amenities at resident rates and a Real Estate Open House Day featuring lunch at participating restaurants.
Although Dannet has been on the job for a very short time there are already some impressive results. In addition, Hot Springs Village will be declared as one of the five best retirement centers in the US in an upcoming issue of Newsweek magazine. Following the presentation Dannet took questions from those attending and her talk was very much appreciated.