There was a very large group for the picture of those married 50 years or more that were attending the Sacred Heart Men’s Club Valentine’s Party.

On Valentine’s Day the Sacred Heart Men’s Club held their monthly meeting as a special Valentine’s salute to sweethearts.  Approximately 120 members and their wives or girl friends along with widows of club members attended. 

Bernie and Marilyn Bauer were recognized for the longest marriage at the party, 65 years!

The ladies were presented with a decorated red rose.  Following dinner the program for the evening was “Men’s Club Men Got Talent”.  Buddy Dixon served as M.C. as four men from each of three tables selected at random came forward to sing a short oldie but goodies tune.  Those attending were asked to vote by their applause for the quartet that had the most talent.  Voted the most talented was the group that included Bernie Bauer, Ed Keearns, Bill Nosek and Milt Spaniel.  Following the program all those couples married 50 years or more were asked to come forward to be recognized and a group picture was taken.  The couple married the longest was Bernie and Marilyn Bauer, celebrating 65 years of marriage and also both were celebrating their birthdays in February.
 
The Sacred Heart Men’s Club meets monthly at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church.  Membership in the club is open to all men that are members of Sacred Heart or whose spouse is a member.  Information about the club is available at their website, hsvmensclub.com.

Fr. Bill Elser demonstrating that he can use his smart phone to download the app for Liturgy of the Hours devotions.

Sacred Heart Men’s Club held their monthly meeting on January 10^th.  There were over 85 members in attendance to participate in the prayer service, dinner and meeting.  The featured speaker following dinner was Father Bill Elser, Pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church.  Father Bill began his talk by asking those present when is the best time to pray.  After hearing a variety of answers, Fr. Bill heard the answer he looking for – anytime!  Building on this he talked about the many reasons to pray which can be summarized into four main categories namely petition, praise, thanksgiving and penitential. 
 
Under Father Bill’s direction, Sacred Heart has initiated a few new prayer activities recently.  The first is the reciting of the Patriotic Rosary.  Once a month at mass the Patriotic Rosary is recited as a prayer for our country, our leaders and those who have sacrificed for our liberty.  It is usually done coinciding with an appropriate national day of recognition such as Veterans Day or Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
 
The second prayer activity recently initiated is to pray the morning prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours prior to the start of mass on Monday through Friday.  The Liturgy of the Hours is a common prayer started in the days of the very early Christian church.  The prayer grew out of the Jewish tradition of praying at specific times of the day and from Jesus’s teaching, as recorded in the bible, for all to pray at all times.  Ordained priests and religious of the Catholic Church are obliged to daily pray the morning and evening prayers from the Liturgy of the Hours.  In this way the Church offers a common prayer to Christ and with Christ to sanctify the entire day.  The Liturgy of the Hours prayer is built around scripture and includes readings from the old and new testaments, the psalms, songs of praise and specific prayers.  The Liturgy can be done in a group with a leader, such as a priest or a deacon, or privately by an individual.  There are books available to help facilitate those wishing to do the Liturgy as well as an app that can be downloaded to your smart phone, which Fr. Bill then demonstrated.
 
Father Bill concluded his remarks by calling on the men of the Sacred Heart Men’s Club to become “prayer warriors”.

Danny Murphy, Sacred Heart Men’s Club Secretary and Meals on Wheels Committee Chairman, and his wife Kathy load up their van at the McCauley Center with meals, bread and milk for delivery.

During the month of February men from the Sacred Heart Men’s Club deliver the Meals on Wheels to Village residents.  Teams of two, club members or a member and his spouse or friend, arrive at the McCauley Center about 9 AM.  Here they receive a list of all the deliveries that are scheduled for that day along with a book containing maps to each address.  Hot meals are kept in warming containers that are loaded into the car or van that the member is using.  In addition, on certain days, milk and bread for the week are also loaded and delivered. 

Currently there are approximately 20 addresses within the Village that receive the daily meals and the delivery involves driving about 65 miles.  The Sacred Heart Men’s Club has been assisting with Meals on Wheels deliveries for a number of years and plans to continue this service in the future.

Men’s Club representatives Bill Patterson and Danny Murphy played Santa Claus this week delivering $6200 in donations to 6 different charities from its fund raising activities this past year.
A donation of $1000 was presented by Danny Murphy to Amanda Maness, Site Director at McCauley Center in Hot Springs Village, designated for their Meals On Wheels Program.	Another $1000 was delivered by Bill Patterson to Jane Mitchell, representative of the Paul Bewie Boys and Girls Club for their general fund.
Elizabeth Shackelford, Principal of St. Johns School in Hot Springs received $1000 from Bill Patterson and Danny Murphy on behalf of the Men’s Club.	Janie Smith, Executive Director of Jackson House in Hot Springs accepted $1000 from Bill & Danny, $150 of these funds will be used for the Sunday Love Lunch Mission which is handled out of Jackson House and the rest is for Jackson House expenditures.
Jan Loggan, Executive Director of Samaritan Ministries in Hot Springs accepted $1000 from Men’s Club representatives Danny Murphy, Bill Patterson, and Dick Hill.	Ed Keearns, Director of the Sacred Heart Church Christmas Basket program accepts a check from Bill Patterson, President of the Men’s Club, for $1200 for this program to provide Christmas gifts and food to needy area families during the week leading up to Christmas.

Dick Breckon

Dick Breckon, a representative from the POA Governmental Affairs Committee spoke to the membership about the dealings of the committee with various city, county, state, and federal agencies. The Committee is especially involved with the two Quorum Courts that have jurisdiction within the Village, as well as the agencies, both county, state, and federal, that deal with water, roads, disaster relief, environment, and other projects that come up that affect the Village but are not overseen by the Village POA.

L to R, Wayne Kapple, Marvin Young, Bill Hurley and Bill Janser.

On Saturday morning, October 15, 20 members of the Sacred Heart Men's Club, led by Ray Ambrozich, met at the El Acapulco parking lot to pick up trash along Highway 7.  They cleaned up approximately one mile of the highway located south of the Village West Gate entrance.  The great turnout allowed the members to finish in less than an hour. Fifteen bags of trash were gathered.  The Men's Club does this service project twice yearly.

Tim Keating, (left) past Men's Club President receiving past president's plaque from current Men's Club President, Bill Patterson.

Bill Patterson (right), President of Sacred Heart Men’s Club, and Buddy Dixon (left), Program Chairman, welcome John Paul to the club’s October meeting.

On October 11^th members of the Men’s Club at Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church gathered for a dinner meeting. They were joined by John Paul, Director of Golf for Hot Springs Village. Following dinner, Mr. Paul updated the members on the status of golf in the Village. He explained that the spring tornado and extremely hot summer had taken a toll on the Village courses. Coronado, Balboa and Ponce were particularly hard hit. At present, he reported that 95% of the tornado clean up has been completed thanks to lots of hard work and also partly to an insurance policy taken out a year ago that has paid over $300,000 in reimbursements for work completed. During his talk John mentioned the newly implemented E blast email system that the POA is now using to inform residents about activities in the Village. Of interest to golfers, there are golfing specials now being offered such as a two for one special at DeSoto on a Sunday afternoon.
 

John spent time reviewing the discussions underway on changing the course greens from Bent Grass to Bermuda Grass. Hot Springs Village is in the “transition zone” from a weather standpoint which makes this a difficult issue. There is no perfect solution, just a series of pluses and minuses depending on which way you go. At this point no decision has been made and John emphasized that any change will be made slowly and only following careful evaluation and trials.
 

After briefly outlining the plans for renovations and improvements projects during the coming year John took questions from the audience. Bill Patterson, President of the Men’s Club, thanked John for his presentation and for taking time to stay and answer the member’s questions.

Father Bill Elser is busy serving some of his home made ice cream assisted by students from the religious education program.

Student Hazel Bonilla takes an order from Bill Patterson, Men’s Club President, and his wife Diane.

On Friday, September 30^th, the Men’s Club of Sacred Heart Catholic Church held their annual fall Chicken Bake.  This is one of two major fund raising events that the Men’s Club conducts each year.  They also have a spring Fish Bake during Lent.  The monies raised at these events will go to the various charities that the club actively supports.  This includes Jackson House, the Boys & Girls Club, Mission Outreach as well as others.

Members of the Men’s Club prepare the dinner and also serve as waiters.  Over 400 guests enjoyed a baked chicken dinner with salad, bread, potato, vegetable and coffee.  Father Bill Elser, Pastor of Sacred Heart, made several flavors of ice cream that were sold and served by youngsters from the religious education program to raise money for the program.  Bill Patterson, President of the Men’s Club, said following the event that the club had exceeded their goal and was very pleased with the success of this year’s Chicken Bake.  The Sacred Heart Men’s Club is open to men of Sacred Heart parish and spouses of Sacred Heart parishioners.