News Items:

ONE SENTENCE Thought For the Day BY Mike Winstead

If God brings you to it,

He will bring you through it.

TODAY'S PROGRAM

President Wilkerson will introduce Debbie Spain, an attorney in Montgomery, who is involved in promoting the program, "Boundless Playgrounds."  She has taken on the program after contacting the company that manufactures the playground equipment after hearing about them on the "Today Show".  She became interested after a friend who has a child with spinal biffida had difficulty in finding a playground suitable for her child.  To equip such a playground will cost $250,000.  The project is committed to raising the money by the end of February.  Mayor Bright has donated space for the playground at the park on Vaughn & Perry Hill Roads.

LAST WEEK'S PROGRAM

There was no actual program last week as there was no arrangement made for a speaker.  Treasurer, Pete Summer spoke about recruitment.  The club needs to replace members who have left.  New members are needed to keep the Club's membership up and enable the Club to carry on its projects.  El Kidd talked about the peanut sales, having taken over the responsibility from Sam Wesley who has moved to Jackson, Alabama.  He said the final sales figures would be given at a later date.  Members who had money from the sale should turn in the money so the sale could be closed out.

PROGRAM FROM DECEMBER 19TH

Charlie Eckerly gave his bowl predictions for 2002.  He said the best sport on TV is football and especially in the South.  The cut in scholarships has had an effect.  This is especially true if you look at the SEC, particularly in the Western part of the Conference.  Many of the teams were in contention this year; there was parity with the teams.

Charlie pointed out there were five bowl games played 50 years ago.  Now there are 30 bowls with 60 teams playing; like Nebraska 6 & 6 and Mississippi 6 & 6.

Auburn has the beef on the hoof; good players.  The coach plays conservatively if they are winning.  If they are losing, he will have all sorts of surprises.  Duval, a good kicker, was replaced by the coach.

The north side of the state got a new coach with a record of 129 wins and 121 losses.  Alabama gets a lot of ball players; got the best recruiting for next year.

Charlie picked the following bowl game winners; his selection is underlined.  An asterick shows the team that actually won the game, if different from Charlie's choice.

Las Vegas Bowl
UCLA
New Mexico

Independent Bowl
*Ole Miss
Nebraska

Alamo Bowl
Colorado
*Wisconsin

Holiday Bowl
Kansas State
*Arizona State

Music City Bowl
Arkansas
*Minnesota

Peach Bowl
Tennessee
*Maryland

San Francisco Bowl
Virginia Tech
Air Force

Cotton Bowl
Texas
LSU

Outback Bowl
Florida
*Michigan

Gator Bowl
North Carolina State
Notre Dame

Capital One Bowl
Auburn
Penn State

Rose Bowl
Oklahoma
Washington State

Sugar Bowl
Georgia
Florida State

Orange Bowl
Southern Cal
Iowa

Fiesta Bowl
Miami
*Ohio State

ENTERTAINMENT

Christmas Visit to VA Hospital

Barnie Paulson arranged a visit to the VA Hospital on Perry Hill Road.  He was informed there were 32 patients.  Dick Bennett, Scott Powell, Jean Ash and Barnie went to Wal-Mart to buy gifts, which included bedroom slippers and toiletry kits.  After shopping, they went to Jean Ash's house and wrapped the gifts.  On December 23rd at 2:00 p.m., Dick Bennett, Jean Ash and Barnie went to the hospital and gave 29 patients a gift and a Christmas card from the children at Dalraida School.  A woman was one of the patients.  There was one gift left over and Barnie told the director to give that gift to the next Vet that checks in.

PEANUT SALES

El Kidd has taken over peanut sales from Sam Wesley, former Chairman, who has moved to Jackson, Alabama.  He will finalize the sale and give out data about the sale at that time.  The profit as of today was $2,495.

There are only seven 20 lb bags remaining to be sold at Jose's service station.  When these are sold, the sale for this year will be completed.  There were four trips made this year to pick up 1,100 lbs each trip for a total of 4,400 lbs.  There is still some money to be turned in and El asked that members turn in the money so that the totals can be tabulated.

The following were leading salesmen at this time:

El Kidd             $1,909.50
Malcolm Bush       505.00
Ken Carrick          436.70
Pete Summer        225.00
George Worley     189.00
Jim Jones             180.00
Barnie Paulson      157.50
Charlie Eckerly      135.00
Jerry Evelan          120.00
George Oetting      120.00
George Wilson       120.00
Jean Ash               105.00