December 8, 2009
Pat Danielson Another great meeting with pretty good attendance! PRESIDENT CHRISTINE is doing a great job! Greeting us was AMY NEAL and JULIUS GLOVER led us in song. EARL HALL shared a reading for a wonderful inspirational time. Our words of inspiration do give us all something to strive for and a great way to start our meeting.
President Chris then awarded her KIWANIAN of the MONTH awards for October, LINDA HACKETT; November, PAT DANIELSON; and December, BOB BROWN. What an honor and thank you, Chris.
Reports:
PHYLLIS MEYER, our Salvation Army committee chair, then reported that we raised $798.61 from the 4 buckets on December 1. The top bucket was at Rosaurers.
Bob Brown reminded everyone of the Kamiakin Interclub for Saturday. It is there anniversary dinner with the Governor there.
Amy Neal then told us of our new badges that are coming. She has taken on this job. Thank you, Amy. Our old badges are no longer available for new members so for all of us to be alike, we are all getting new badges!
STEVE EMHOFF announced that the Father-Daughter dance tickets are now available.
SGT. CAMI LEONARD CORBIN then managed to get most of us to add to the administrative budget!
BETH KLINGELE won the 'big' bingo prize and KIRSTEN DANIELSON won and then lost at the 50/50. More for the rest of us later.
KIRSTEN also reminded us of the Christmas Party next week, December 15, at the Convention Center. The event begins at 5:30 with dinner, Santa and a special wine tasting for an extra $10 each. Rumors of a chocolate fountain for desert!
Earl Hall reminded us of the Aktion Club meeting 6-7 p.m. at the Harmon Center tonight (December 1).
WENDY AGUILAR then introduced our program, the Yakima Sports Commission, with Rich Austin and Mike Carey. They surprised us with a trivia time with actual prizes! They both went on to tell us of the many activities and the funds that come into the area from the sports activities in Yakima. The role of the Sports Commission is to keep the athletic events here in the valley and to make them bigger. While bringing in money to Yakima, the Yakima Valley is promoted to outsiders. Among the many activites of WIAA, 3 on 3, there is also motorcycle rally's, youth wrestling, rodeo and horse activities, fly fishing, softball etc. The Sports Commission, which is a part of the Visitors and Convention Bureau, assist in the bid process, getting information and a clearing house for hotels and local organizations. They host the Sports Award Luncheon in early June along with the Yakima Herald Republic. In August is the Hot Shots tournament on the steets of Yakima. This year there were 319 teams with 1229 players and it is growing each year.
The Sundome Volleyball Festival in September has 80 teams and the Sundome and YVC is used.
Rich explained to us how huge the impact of the activities that the Sports Commission helps bring to our community. With the help of those like Gene Rostvold, Bob DiPietro. Carol Finney, Mel Moore and many others there is a trickle down to all businesses in Yakima. The impact of the commission and the activies have grown from $9.8 million in 2006 to $25.6 million through October of 2009.
The WIAA activities use over 17,000 hotel rooms with State Dance & Drill, Basketball, Volleyball, tennis, baseball, softball, golf, coaches meetings and association conferences. The sports activities have put Yakima on the map. Local organizations give hours and hours to the events. We are not Spokane, Tacoma or Seatle, but we are fourth on the list. We need to keep growing to keep the activities helping our community.
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