Today’s Speakers: – Terry Tomassetti – Blair County Court House Renovations
Future Speakers:
August 1st – Beth Futrich – “Pa Agricultural Ombudsman Program”
August 8th – Kay Tyberg – HLAA Hearing Loss Association of America
August 15th – Roseann Conrad – Blair County Dog Park in Martinsburg
August 22nd – Tim Obrien – Young Life
August 29th – Bryson Peterman – Owner of Bootleggers Brew Shop
Whacha’ May Have Missed Last Week:
Maria Brandt – Blair County Chamber Committee on Not-for-Profit Businesses – spoke about a training course designed for not-for-profits that is scheduled for November 9th at The Casino. There are 350 nfp’s in Blair County and all are invited to attend this informative session. Additionally, Maria spoke about the new Blair County Smart911 program. Blair County has
purchased this system which is open to all County residents and businesses. The system provides for you to input vital data about you and your family members, phone numbers, medications and medical concerns, homes, vehicles, and even pets….all of which is kept strictly confidential and used only by the 911 Control Center employees to alert first responders. What you want to include is up to you, but the more information you provide to this free service will help first responders to better handle a 911 call for assistance. For instance, you can show where your shutoffs for your home’s gas, water and electric are in case of a fire. Or you can list your family members and even your pets in case of an emergency. Maria stated that even including something such as a family member who is deaf can be important for a firefighter to know so that he can remove his mask to allow a victim to read his lips. For more information on this program, two meetings are scheduled for Thursday August 17th at 9:00 AM and another on Saturday September 23rd at 10:00AM at The Arc, 431 Jackson Ave., Altoona or by calling 814-940-5901. Maria also acknowledged our recent club donation to The Arc and explained that the money was going to be used for a new program for their clients where the organization will teach basic living skills such as laundry, cooking, banking, safety, and social skills.
Guests of the Day:
…..Larry Harker of the Vincent de Paul Society, guest of Ed Garlena.
News of the Week:
…..Bev Green, representing the 
FirstEnergy Foundation, presented a $2,000 check to our club for our Amtryke project. Aside Bev in the picture are Ambucs Sandy Gregory and John Lloyd, who Bev thanked for working with the AMBUCS Amtryke program as a FirstEnergy employee (Sandy) and retiree (John).
…..AMBUCS Softball Marathon team captain, Tony Miller, passed around a sign-up sheet for a
picnic social at Ed Farabaugh’s home. Two dates are being considered…Friday August 11th or Saturday August 12th. If you haven’t already responded to Kathy Storm from last Tuesday’s email, please do so soon, so that a date can be finalized. What better way to spend a summer evening?
…..Meet our two newest Ambucs…..
…..Dean McKnight was sponsored by Paul Dick. Dean, who is retired, was formerly a Senior Vice President of M & T Bank and active in a number of other organizations such as the ABCD corp. He also serves as the M.C. for the Altoona Horseshoe Chorus and the State College Nittany Knights. Dean is married to Elsie, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Dean’s hobby is flying kites and a number of years ago he was a speaker at AMBUCS, discussing his very interesting hobby. When asked what was unique about himself, he replied that he wanted to join AMBUCS in spite of counting both Paul and Trav Young as friends.
…..Michele Lloyd was sponsored by her husband and bulletin editor extraordinaire, John Lloyd. Michele is a retired nurse from Dr. J. Grant Hormell’s office. She (and John) have two sons, Chris and Jason and two grandsons, Nolan and Andrew. Her retirement life is filled with volunteering for Home Nursing’s Hospice program, delivering Meals-on-Wheels, and multiple tasks at Zion Lutheran Church. In her “spare” time she enjoys reading and time with the grandkids. When asked what was unique about herself, she replied that she thinks she holds the record for attending the greatest number of Curve baseball games as a person who “hates” baseball.
…..Our guest speaker, Maria Brandt, pulled the winning raffle ticket of Trav Young. Trav chose the King of Clubs instead of picking one of the two Jokers. One more card gone and one step closer to a big winner! Next week’s drawing could net someone nearly $335!
In Closing: 