Next Meeting: Tuesday July 7th at the Blair County Convention Center (See details below)
…..Last Tuesday we held our Zoom meeting and our speaker for the day was our very own Ken Decker, who discussed the renovations that Arts Altoona has made to the Simpson Temple buildings at 6th Avenue and 22nd 
Street in Altoona. Ken went on to say that when the combined small Lutheran and Methodist congregation of the two buildings could no longer afford to maintain the buildings; they donated the site to Arts Altoona. Since then they have been working to renovate the buildings into an arts center that was originally intended for the Kress building along 11th Avenue. While the church donated all of the existing furnishings and equipment, there is still quite a bit of work to do to renovate the two adjacent buildings. Once completed Arts Altoona intends to use the buildings to host art programs, concerts, social events and other programs for up to several hundred attendees. A large commercial kitchen will be able to host dinners, both sponsored by Arts Altoona as well as catered events. Ken stated that donations are being sought to help with the very costly renovation process.
…..President Linda made several announcements including the reminder that she still has available Hoss’s/Marzoni’s gift cards for $10 and that the blood screening has now been rescheduled for Saturday August 1st. Details regarding both of these events can be found later in this bulletin.
….On Thursday, the AMBUCS board met at Hoss’s in Altoona for their monthly meeting, with the resumption of our regular meetings being the main topic of discussion. Following a large number of positive responses from our membership when asked if they feel comfortable re-starting our in-person meetings, the board decided to resume our meetings beginning Tuesday July 7th. The meetings will be held at the Blair County Convention Center with the following requirements/restrictions/precautions:
- The meetings will be held in the same room that we met in earlier during the trial run, but the connecting wall between the rooms will be opened to allow for more spacing.
- The round tables will be set for four members per table.
- The servers will wear masks and gloves and will be serving pre-packaged meals.
At least for the first several weeks, President Linda will send out an invitation for the meetings which should allow us to give the Center a rough idea of how many will be attending. While the board is asking that you please respond to the invitation from Linda, there is no problem if you later find that you can’t attend or if you decline and at the last minute realize that you can attend. The intent is to get an approximate count. With the resumption of our regular meetings, the quarterly billing will go back to our normal dues. Treasurer Chris Shirock will be sending out the next dues billing in July for the July-September quarter. For those uncomfortable or unable to attend, Alex Seltzer and Bill Reintgen plan to make these meetings available on Zoom.
In other board action, approval was made to donate this year’s two $500 scholarships to Alexis Murray of Altoona (O.T.R. – St. Francis) and approval was granted to Tony Miller to register the Ambucs to again participate in the Pro-Care Softball Marathon. The game is scheduled for Saturday August 15th at Legion Park in Hollidaysburg. Details and a sign-up sheet will be available soon.
…..The annual AMBUCS Blood Screening has been rescheduled for Saturday morning August 1st at Blair County Convention Center. UPMC will be making recorded calls to all those that had pre-registered for the cancelled May 
screening. More details in the following weeks, but Screening Chairman Ed Farabaugh will be looking for lots of help that morning. Please spread the word of the new date to all of your family, friends and co-workers. This is a major fundraising effort for our Amtrykes and other philanthropic works. A sign-up sheet should be available at the July 7th meeting.
…..With Blair County restaurants now being open…now’s the time to get your Hoss’s – Marzoni’s gift cards that support our club. The cards are just $10 and can be used anytime at either Hoss’s or Marzoni’s. You know you are anxious to eat out…call President Linda Horomanski today at 937-0884 to get your cards today!
…..Program chairman Ken Decker is looking for programs for July. If you can help Ken, give him a call. Once meetings start back up, a sign-up sheet will be circulated by Ken for the remaining months in the club year. Please help the club out by taking a month or share one with a fellow Ambuc. Programs are an integral part of our weekly meetings and your help is needed.
…..During this pandemic the bulletins have been rather sparse since there wasn’t much to report, however what was missed was our monthly birthday and club anniversary lists. So here they are, just a little belated.
Birthdays:
April:
4th – Lynn Lee-Alexander
11th – Renee Pullen
13th – Alex Seltzer
21st – Bob Reffner
30th – Jim Huff
May:
4th – Tim Parnell
6th –Dean McKnight
9th – Rudy Turko
10th – Rachael Lenhart
18th – Sue Barber, Rachel DiAndrea, & Ed Farabaugh
20th – Michele Lloyd
22nd – Steve Parks
23rd – Emily Sollenberger
29th – Bill Reintgen
June:
13th – Jim Berkhimer
Club Anniversaries:
April:
1981 – Bob Reffner – 39 Years!
2002 – Lynn Lee-Alexander
2018 – Jim Berkhimer, Chris Shirock, & Rudy Turko
May:
1984 – Steve Parks – 36 Years!
1986 – Bob Fiore – 34 Years!
1988 – Alex Seltzer – 32 Years!
1998 – Tim Parnell
2007 – Mike Strait
2015 – Rachel DiAndrea
2019 – Spencer Wiggins
June:
2016 – Karen Lemme & Derek Martin
2017 – Michel Lloyd & Dean McKnight
2019 – Kristen Rago
In Closing: Room for just a few puns…
- A crazy woman says to her husband…”There are moose falling from the sky” to which he replies, “Don’t worry, it’s just reindeer”!
- My Grandpa has the heart of a lion and a lifetime ban from the zoo.
- Speaking of the zoo…some aquatic mammals recently escaped. It was otter chaos.
- My sister bet me that I couldn’t build a car out of spaghetti. You should have seen her face when I drove pasta.