Kiwanis Club of Sand Lake, NY

President Gary Meislin                                                                                                                                          Secretary Patricia A. Lane

President-Elect Skip Patton                                                                                                                           Treasurer Robert S. Pasquarelli

Webmaster David E. Booker                                                                                                                       Immediate Past Pres Gerald Tysiak

Sandpiper Editor Margaret Weiss                                                                                                                         Photographer James Rogers

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

John C. Brownrigg, James M. Colabelli, Eve M. Ward

Joseph M. Behson, Raymond C. Turner, , William M. Whipple

Barbara Fioravanti, Robert R. Loveridge & Ron Wagner

MEETING OF JULY 26, 2010

PRESIDENT Gary Meislin presiding

GREETINGS & INVOCATION by Ken Van Praag

GUESTS: SLK family members Jane Van Praag, Lee Van Praag,

    Joan Gross Carpenter (shown below with Doug Baldrey)           

 Rose Dorr, Pat Mulligan and Joanne Rogers (shown on right between Eve Ward and John Mulligan)  

-- plus Joan Pasquarelli (with Eve)   Audrey Trupia (with Joe)       

                   Columbia HS Key Clubbers: VP Jill Doldeo   and Editor/Webmaster Mollie Beaudin 

WELCOME BACK to several Legacy members:  Doug Baldrey, Bob Carpenter, Angelo Patti,

                                 Joe Distell, Joe Trupia, and Woodie Hacker

PROJECTS NEEDING VOLUNTEERS

            DOORS OF HOPE Friday, August 6th and Tuesday August 17th

            RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE Tuesday, August 24th at Church of the Covenant

LEGION OF HONOR AWARD to Doug Baldrey for 40 years of Kiwanis membership!    

PERFECT ATTENDANCE AWARDS to John Brownrigg for 17 years and to Eve Ward for 9!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ø  DUES ARE OVERDUE!  If you are in arrears, please contact Secretary Pat ASAP!

Ø  Behson:  Request for compilation of hours served at Summerfest – Please!

Ø  Eve:  For the special benefit of family members who don’t hear the news, our annual end of year Steak & Lobster Roast will be Friday, Aug 27th at Camp Rotary, and the visit to the

Valley Cats baseball game will be Monday, Aug 30th.  Guests are most welcome, and signup sheets will be available soon.

Ø  Tysiak:  DEA Computing, our technicians for rebuilding computer systems for students, has requested donations of only Pentium H, Windows XP or better, please!  They cannot refurbish older models, and they are not able to recycle them.

Ø  Sarsfield (on right):  I have seen Joe Cybulski and he looks well after his surgery, but still cannot be responsible for the Sunday Music in the Park program.  Hosts are needed for the Aug 8, 15, 22, and 29 concerts.  Please contact Kevin if you can help out!  Pat Lane will be the MC for the first program on Aug 1st, featuring April Marie & Co at 5:30 PM.

Ø  INTERCLUB this Wed July 28th at East Greenbush Club at the bowling lanes on Columbia Turnpike at 6:30.  Note:  no meal is served at this meeting.  Going:  John Mulligan (who is presenting the program!), John Brownrigg, Dave Booker, Eve Ward, & Peg Weiss.

Ø  Carpenter:  Please loan me any of your old pictures of SLK activities to be used for future programs.  Next month the Legacy Committee will present a speaker at the Aug 16 meeting, and on Sept 20th we will honor another Legatee.  Guests are most welcome, but if you are bringing a guest, PLEASE let Dudley know for the meal count!

PROGRAM

          Legacy Committee Chair Bob Carpenter announced that tonight we will be honoring and roasting a very distinguished long time member of SLK……Joe Distell.  No, that’s not right…Joe is hosting a prospective member, Lee Van Praag, and tonight’s honoree is Ken Van Praag, better known as KVP, who was ushered into the hot seat at the front of the room!  Bio facts:  Ken became a Kiwanian in July 1968 (that’s 42 years ago, folks), and served in many club capacities including the first ever Distinguished President in 1971-72.  He continues to serve the club, most recently as Advisor to NY District Governor Booker, and was a long time Interclub and Convention Chair.  Now to hear the memories of some folks who remember “way back when”!

Joe Distell:  Ken became my neighbor when we moved across Rt 43 from the Van Praags, and I was most impressed to learn that he was rich—(he worked with Nelson Rockefeller)—a Republican, and President of Kiwanis!  He invited me to join, and continued to support and advise me when I became president in 77/78.  When we learned that Jane was a nurse it was a comfort to us because we had very young children.  I do remember one time I was disturbed when KVP, Baldrey, & Paul Weiss came into our house—uninvited—while we were having guests for dinner, and proceeded to help themselves to plates of food!   Another time, when Meg was sick, Ken offered to transport the soup to the annual New Year’s Eve cooperative dinner at the Weiss’s, and we didn’t learn until much later that it never arrived at the dinner because Ken had dropped it in the driveway, but never said anything to anybody!  He was a great neighbor, and IS a great friend!

Eve Ward:  I’ve been a member only since 2001, but have known Ken from the days when the club met at Glass Lake.  Lots of big beer drinkers back then!  He has always been a wonderful support, and is unique in that he and I have matching forehead scars.  Only mine is from surgery, and he fell out of bed!

Dudley Dorr:  I don’t remember anything from way back then!  I joined SLK 8 months after KVP, but he got way ahead of me in all the jobs!  I worked up to president, but didn’t become a lieutenant governor.  Ken was a great advisor about all things Kiwanis, but he got me in trouble sometimes.  We both loved Manhattans!

Peg Weiss:  So many memories from a 40 year friendship!  Paul and I met Ken and Jane at a NYD convention at the Lake Placid Club when Ken was a newer member of SLK, and our rowdy group almost made him reconsider his choice!  We party hearty, and this was just the beginning of many fun times at the Concord.  We became best friends, and traveled together, often with Roger and Rose Marie Young, who remembers vividly the pitchers of Manhattans!  But those trips up to Besch’s camp in Canada were the highlight.  5 or 6 couples would make the 6 hour drive up to Rideau Ferry, helping to open or close the camp.  Ken became our official cook—a good one—and we had some terrific meals.  Remember that watermelon shell full of fruit that slid off the tray onto the kitchen floor?  The 4 of us rented a houseboat from the facility across the river, and took a weeklong trip down to Kingston on Lake Ontario.  That was the start of boating for both couples.  SLK was a close knit group of many lifelong friendships, helping each other whenever needed.  When the KVPs had a house fire, many members came to do what they could to clean up and restore order.  I remember helping to wallpaper, and Paul remodeled with a chainsaw!  When Paul became weak from his cancer, Ken drove him so he could continue teaching the boating course as long as possible.  SLK brought 3 great guys together:  Paul, Roger Young, and KVP.  All 3 served as Lt Governors, and were best of friends.  But that didn’t stop them from playing all sorts of practical jokes on each other—the details of those are best left to your imagination!  13 years ago Paul passed away, and 5 years later Roger joined him.  So Ken, consider this a warning to beware:  dire things are being planned for you!  Ken and Jane helped me put my life back together after Paul’s death, and I will be forever grateful to them for that wonderful support.  If you ever need a friend—they don’t come any better than Jane and KVP!

John Brownrigg:  When I joined the club, I too sought advice from KVP—and then did the opposite!  When Ken opposed our rebuilding the Petersburg church, we went ahead with the project—and were awarded a National Honor for it!  Ken was our On To Convention chairman, and he encouraged many to attend and enjoy the gatherings.  I especially remember Nice, France, as such a romantic place.  Ken got us really cheap lodgings—right in the middle of the red light district!  The streets literally “walked” at night—just ask the Colabellis!  On my first visit as Lt Governor to the Hudson Club, KVP closed the club!  I’ll never forget your advice!  Another cheap hotel room was at Lake Placid where they had a 7 foot bear in the lobby and we had to hang our clothes on an iron pipe!  But it was cheap!

Ken James:  I too, as a new member, was sent to KVP for advice.  He was one of our best!

Woodie Hacker: KVP joined 3 years after I was president, so I didn’t have the benefit of his advice.

But when I broke my collarbone a week before I was to lead a group on a ski trip to Switzerland, Ken took over the job, and I learned that I missed a really great time!  It was fun being before you!

Bob Pasquarelli:  You could tell that KVP was in politics.  Most presidents have a book recording the events of their year—Ken had three!  Mostly news clippings from the Troy Record!  Whenever he noted a problem, his response was “Let’s DO something about that!”  Ken and Jane took Joan and me under their wing, and the next thing I knew I was SECRETARY!  It was fun to watch him at conventions.  He’d canvass the schedule, and come back to us with “This is what we have to do!”

When we went to conventions, it was always a family affair, kids included, and it was safe to leave them on their own in the hotels, telling the concierge what they could charge to our rooms.  And they made out fine, and had as great time as we did!

Angelo Patti:  In the beginning, I thought “Kay-vee-pea” was his name!  He worked for Nelson Rockefeller, and was very organized.  Then he became Rensselaer County Health Commissioner, and was compassionate, insightful, and helpful with land use issues and septic systems—he was knee deep in those!  He helped me to give up smoking.  Despite being younger and taller, I couldn’t beat him playing ball.  I quit, and was able to at least keep up!  I learned a lot from Ken, especially about civil service applicants.  He told me to pick the one with the nicest legs!  From KVP:  I’m so glad you said LEGS!” 

Doug Baldrey:  The definition of legacy is “something someone hands down to others”, and KVP has done that, and then some.  Before Americans were chanting “USA, USA, USA” at the 1980 Olympics, Kiwanians were chanting “KVP, KVP, KVP”!  I didn’t know what his name was either!

This club had its first president in 1949/50, but Ken was its first DISTINGUISHED president, and he went on to become a Distinguished Lt Governor too.  It was a time when all the clubs were growing and very active.  In the 1975/76 year 111 interclubs were made by SLK!  And quite a few were reciprocated by other clubs.  We often had to move to Crooked Lake’s larger room for our activities because so many people came.  Other clubs in the division and the district recognized our many projects.

Bob Carpenter:  42 years ago, Ken helped me move!  Our very successful Winter Carnival was his idea sparking an evening of liquid discussion.  “We need a community project to benefit the town.”  It was not supposed to be a fund raiser, but to our amazement we made $6000!  I have lots of memories, but even if I get Alzheimer’s, I’ll never forget Cape Cod—pitch & putt golf, shrimp & lobster feasts, bar hopping!  But I lost my brother!

 Lee Van Praag:  I remember everything!

Rebuttal by KVP:  Kiwanis is something special.  Before I moved to Sand Lake, I lived in Castleton and was a member of the Jaycees, which may have predisposed me to community service organizations.  Don Harrington invited me to join SLK 43 years ago, and I’ve never been sorry.  We were a close bunch—a group of about 8 of us became a “family”, kids included.  We did everything together—worked on projects, traveled, gave parties, and had fun.  After our house fire, everything pretty much had to be gutted.  I had hired a contractor who was to come a week later.  But in the meantime 27 Kiwanians came early in the morning, worked all day, and by that night had it all out and carted away!  The contractor couldn’t believe his eyes!  He could start work immediately.  It took 6 months, while we lived over Besch’s garage, but all that support will never be forgotten.  So heartwarming!  Club projects were many.  We didn’t just clean up one road, we cleaned up ALL the roads in town, using town dump trucks to haul away the trash!  The Boy Scouts helped us.  We’ve done a lot over the years—just look at these banners!  I was always glad to share my experience with newer members.  We used to be the smallest club in the division.  Interclubs helped us to grow, and now SLK sets a standard.  And through all these experiences, Jane has been my biggest supporter—thanks!

Membership & Education Chair Joe Behson presented Ken, Jane, and Lee with a plaque proclaiming Ken Van Praag as a LEGACY MEMBER OF DISTINCTION!

HAPPY DOLLARS

$     Kevin Sarsfield:  Thanks to KVP for being a fervent Yankee fan in this den of Red Soxers!  John Bergmann introduced me into the club, and Ken bought me a Manhattan.  I wish I had met you 20 years earlier!

$     Jim Rogers:  KVP gave me the idea for putting up Peace Poles at each school building in the AP district, and that was my project the year I was president.  Thanks, Ken!

$     KVP:  My happy dollar is just for tonight—special friends—thank you very much!

$     Dick Johnsen:  When Ken was head of the Health Dept he helped Church of the Covenant get permission to be used for community services.

$     Joe Distell:  This is for JANE Van Praag, for helping our kids grow up healthy!

DOOR PRIZE, provided by Bob Carpenter, was won by Joan Pasquarelli!

50/50 for $28 was won by Fred Wurtemberger—3rd time in a week!!!

MEGA 50/50 worth $269.50 outsmarted BOB Pasquarelli--he picked the 6 of Diamonds from 38!

NEXT WEEK            NO PROGRAM:  BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING 

AUGUST 2                 GREETER/INVOCATOR:  Michael Gates

AUGUST 9                PROGRAM:  Woodie Hacker

                                    GREETER/INVOCATOR/CERTIFICATE:  Jo Moccia

AUGUST 16               PROGRAM BY LEGACY GROUP MEMBER

                                    GREETER/INVOCATOR/CERTIFICATE:  Fred Wurtemberger

AUGUST 23               PROGRAM:  Eve Ward – Committee Chairs

                                    GREETER/INVOCATOR/CERTIFICATE:  Pat Lane

AUGUST 30               VALLEY CATS BASEBALL AT THE JOE

Don’t forget—SUNDAYS, AUGUST 1, 8, 15, 22, 29—MUSIC IN THE PARK @ 5:30 PM!   

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:

            “Your enthusiasm will be infectious, stimulating, and attractive to others.  They will love you for it.  They will go for you and with you.”                                 Norman Vincent Peale

Ed Note:  Once again, my gratitude to Barb Fioravanti for taking the notes for last week’s Sandpiper.  Good job, and thank you!              Peg

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