Today’s Meeting: – Karen McGraw – Armed Forces Mothers
Future Speakers:
May 1st – No Speaker – Membership discussion led by Alex Seltzer
May 8th – Presentation of two Amtrykes
May 15th – Debbie Kelly – Dreams Go On
May 22nd – Marty Malone – Lehman Engineers – Pa’s covered bridges
Whacha’ May Have Missed Last Week:
…..Last week our speaker was Betsy Garach, of the Conemaugh Nason Foundation. Betsy also happens to be Derek Martin’s mother-in-law. Derek introduced Betsy to the membership explaining that she “bought” him for $51 in a charity bachelor auction for her daughter……..a purchase that eventually turned into her having Derek become her son-in-law. Betsy stated that her community involvement began at an early age when her mother had her doing door-to-door solicitation for the American Heart Association. She noted that she appreciates the AMBUCS efforts since “it takes a passion to do good work for which you are not paid”. She was already familiar with the AMBUCS since her grand-daughter was an Amtryke recipient a number of years ago. Betsy also is a volunteer for the American Cancer Society and is a member of the board of directors at Conemaugh Nason Medical Center. She noted that the hospital was founded in 1900 as a small community hospital serving the rural areas of Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties. The 45 bed hospital has an emergency room, medical-surgery care, pediatrics, obstetrics/neonatal, and physical rehab as just some of its services. While Nason was a non-profit operation, the merger with the Conemaugh Health System changed them to a for-profit entity. Since the merger, about $1M was invested in capital improvements to the hospital. As one of the hospital’s 13 board members, Betsy is also involved with the Nason Foundation, which began in 1988 with the mission “to support the health and vitality of our community through financial support and education”. It is through this foundation that our AMBUCS grant coordinator, Dave Aikens, approached Betsy with a request for Amtryke funding. Betsy and the Foundation announced that they would fund three Amtrykes that were recently ordered for three children in the Foundation’s service area. Following her presentation, Betsy and the Foundation presented 
vice-president Kristan with a check for $2523, the cost of the three trykes! One of the trykes, for a 9 year old boy from Martinsburg was presented to him last Monday and the other two; for an 11 year old East Freedom boy and a 12 year old boy from Duncansville, will be presented at our May 8th meeting. Betsy, who is employed at Top to Bottom Interiors, finished her talk by stating that the owner of Top to Bottom, Brian Himes, visited the AMBUCS website and was also impressed with what we do. He stated that he would like to support us by donating to the club’s Amtryke fund for a future tryke. Dave will have more information on this as it develops. A huge thank you goes out to Betsy, the Nason Foundation, Brian Himes of Top to Bottom Interiors, and to grant chairman Dave Aikens for making our Amtryke program so successful.
Guests of the Day:
…..The only guest was Kristan’s therapy student, TJ, who is shadowing her.
News of the Week:
…..Vice-President Kristan reminded everyone that hoagie and apple dumpling orders will be ready for pickup tomorrow….April 24th. The orders can be picked up any time beginning at 8AM.
…..A sign-up sheet was again passed around to work at our annual Blood Screening set for Saturday May 5th at the Park Hills Golf Club. We’re down to needing just two more volunteers that morning from 5:30 AM to 10:00 AM. This fundraiser typically nets the club around $12,000 so it’s a big part of our Amtryke budget. Also remember to sign up yourself for a screening and help advertise the event by placing brochures and posters in your office and any other locations where people would see them. The brochures and posters are now available at club.
…..Ken Decker circulated a sign-up sheet for members to secure programs for the next club year (beginning in June). Please consider taking a month or sharing one with another Ambuc.
…..Jim Huff informed the membership that he and his wife Barb attended the AMBUCS regional conference last weekend in the Poconos. Jim was the auctioneer for the annual Big Hat auction which according to Jim raised $4300 for the National Scholarship program. Way to go Jim!
…..Last week the raffle ticket of Derek Martin was chosen by our guest speaker (and Derek’s mother-in-law), Betsy Garach, prompting Derek to exclaim…”She’s my favorite mother-in-law!” I’m not so sure Derek felt the same way after picking the queen of hearts….instead of that elusive Joker. The good news for the rest of us is that the pot once more grows….now around $625! So this week, you have the chance to pick the winning Joker out of a remaining deck of 21 cards.
In Closing:
The Miser and His Final Wish
There once was a man who had worked hard all of his life and had saved all of his money. He was a real miser when it came to his money. In fact, he loved money more than most anything else and so just before he died, he said to his wife…”Listen, when I die I want you to take all of my money and place it in the casket with me, because I want to take all of it with me to the after-life.”
So he got his wife to promise him with all of her heart that when he died she would indeed put all of his money in his casket with him. When he died and was stretched out in the casket, his wife, dressed in black, was right there beside him. Her best friend was at her side as the funeral ceremony came to a close. Just before the casket was closed, the wife yelled out “Wait a minute!”
She came up to the casket with a shoebox in her hand, placed it in the casket and told the undertaker that he could now close the casket and take it away. Her friend looked at her and said, “I hope you weren’t crazy enough to put all of that money in there with that old stingy husband of yours.” The wife said, “Yes, I promised him. I’m a good Christian and cannot lie. I promised him that I would put that money in the casket with him.” “You mean to tell me you put every cent of his money in the casket with him?” the friend gasped. “I sure did” answered the wife. “I got it all together, put it in my account, and wrote him a check!”