There were approx­i­mate­ly 55 Eye of the Tiger e‑Kiwanis Club mem­bers and guests present on their com­put­ers or phones for our meet­ing held on the evening of July 16th. We had par­tic­i­pants from coast to coast in the USA, Cana­da, Jamaica, Colum­bia, Ice­land and Malaysia. We are indeed a glob­al orga­ni­za­tion com­ing togeth­er in our desire to improve mem­ber­ship, encour­age lead­er­ship and pro­vide service. 

Our club enjoyed host­ing an inter­club with the Red Stick e‑Kiwanis Club of Baton Rouge from the Louisiana Mis­sis­sip­pi West Ten­nessee Dis­trict. Club mem­bers were intro­duced by Divi­sion 80E Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Lau­ra Gilliland, includ­ing Past Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion Óskar Guðjóns­son and LaMis­sTenn Gov­er­nor Bruce Ham­matt, along with First Lady Joy. We joined togeth­er to sing Hap­py Birth­day to Joy, tru­ly hon­ored that she decid­ed to spent her birth­day with us.

Pres­i­dent Barb Thomp­son was excit­ed to be able to induct three new mem­bers this evening. All were wel­comed with a hearty EOT Zoom hand­shake. Those new club mem­bers include the cur­rent Gov­er­nor of the Utah-Ida­ho Dis­trict, Steven L. West­phal spon­sored by Joe Mey­er, the Past Gov­er­nor of the Colom­bia Dis­trict, Jose Velasquez spon­sored by PIT Chuck Gugli­uz­za and  Mem­ber­ship Chair Taka Oga­ta from the Indi­ana Dis­trict, intro­duced by Joe. All three of our new mem­bers have worked hard to improve mem­ber­ship in their respec­tive Dis­tricts. We are extreme­ly pleased they have cho­sen to join our EOT e‑Kiwanis club.

Member Profiles

Cal­i­for­nia Neva­da Hawaii can­di­date for Gov­er­nor Elect, Valar­ie Brown-Klin­gel­hoe­fer, explained how being a “mil­i­tary brat” has giv­en her a broad­er per­spec­tive of the world. Her Doc­tor­ate degree led to many years in Uni­ver­si­ty admin­is­tra­tion and she con­tin­ues to con­sult in her retire­ment.  Being a third gen­er­a­tion Kiwan­ian, she is ded­i­cat­ed to grow­ing clubs. Her mot­to: Dream Big Set Goals sums up Valar­ie’s ded­i­ca­tion and enthu­si­asm for Kiwa­nis. We wish our EOT Trea­sur­er all the best in achiev­ing her goals.

Incom­ing Gov­er­nor Elect Mary Lynn Des­jar­lais stepped away from her Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor train­ing, to share her mem­ber pro­file with us. Mary Lynn has been an attor­ney in Sara­so­ta for thir­ty years, spe­cial­iz­ing in estate plan­ning and real estate. She has been tasked with cre­at­ing the work­shops for the upcom­ing Flori­da online con­ven­tion in August. She is thrilled that EOT mem­bers are deliv­er­ing mem­ber­ship growth work­shops among the thir­ty-four edu­ca­tion­al ses­sions she has cre­at­ed. Mary Lynn is grate­ful to be work­ing with the sup­port­ive Flori­da lead­er­ship team. Have a great year ahead!

Plant City Cit­i­zen of the Year, Divi­sion 14 Trustee, Sharon Moody from the Flori­da Dis­trict is one very busy Kiwan­ian. She is a 13 year Kiwan­ian, now retired from busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion who is active­ly involved in innu­mer­able com­mit­tees and orga­ni­za­tions. Sharon is throw­ing her hat into the ring for the posi­tion of Vice Gov­er­nor 2020/2021. Thank you for step­ping forward!

Flori­da Dis­trict can­di­date for Gov­er­nor Elect, Har­vey White explained to us how Kiwa­nis came to his life. If I said, “stale bread”, you might won­der how this could be? How­ev­er, Har­vey par­tic­i­pat­ed in the gath­er­ing and dis­tri­b­u­tion of bak­ery dona­tions to help those in need, along­side a Kiwan­ian. From the expe­ri­ence, Har­vey knew that he want­ed to be a part of this great ser­vice orga­ni­za­tion. We know Har­vey, along with his “First Daugh­ter”, will con­tin­ue to impact com­mu­ni­ties through­out the Flori­da Dis­trict. Kiwa­nis is the best thing since sliced bread…

We were delight­ed to have one of our newest mem­bers, Aman­da Mali­nows­ki, as our guest speak­er. Check out our Speak­er’s Cor­ner blog to find out more!

Upcom­ing Birthdays!

August is approach­ing as are many EOT mem­ber birth­days pri­or to our next club meet­ing on August 20th. Birth­days include August 3rd Joe Rug­giero, 4th Sharon Moody, 5th Brit­tany Love, 6th Rose­mary Oars­ley and the 15th Mark Espos­i­to. On our club meet­ing, it will be Armand St. Ray­mond’s birth­day cel­e­bra­tion. Voic­es are start­ing to warm up…

Fol­low­ing our meet­ing, on the 27th with be Ray Krieg­baum’s day with Steven West­phal blow­ing our his can­dles on the 28th. Felic­i­ta­tions to all!

To help out your eas­i­ly dis­tract­ed EOT newslet­ter edi­tor… please send com­mit­tee reports, pic­tures and ideas to me, Julia Levine. That real­ly helps me out immense­ly. Thank you!