Family Fun, Friends, Pizza, Packages... Inaugural Family General Meeting a Great Success!

On Monday, February 5, we gathered at 7:00 P.M. at Town Spa Pizza in Stoughton, MA for friendship, food, fun, and we found all three in abundance. Connecting with friends both old and new, enjoying family-friendly fare with our families, and assembling packages for our Mids all added up to a great time. By 9:00 P.M. we had enjoyed a family friendly supper, our Firstie and some 2C Parents had participated in a Firstie Seminar, and we had 80 Valentine's Day/Dark Ages packages, and 74 birthday cards (we regret that we still lack the birthdates for 6 Mids!) ready to be shipped and mailed.

Forty-seven of us braved one of the coldest nights of the year and were rewarded with delicious spicy and regular buffalo wings with dipping sauce, fresh garden salad with choice of dressings, and 5 different types of mouth-watering pizza. Soda was plentiful, coffee or tea and cookies rounded out the menu. For those so inclined, the bar was in the next room. Once the warmth of the atmosphere and the food helped us to forget the outside temperature, we got to work on the package assembly line. Doug and some of the early arrivals had already arranged the goodies according to a computer template he had developed. We moved steadily along, affixing address labels onto envelopes for each of the 80 Mids in our Club, and then filling them with the the following goodies to cheer our Mids as they patiently await the arrival of spring:

A $10.00 gift certificate to Dry Dock Restaurant
A Valentine's Card	Candy Hearts - chocolate & crunch
A Life Savers lolly pop	Candy message hearts
Jolly Rancher candies	Twizzlers
Candy Kisses	Rice Krispie Treats
Cherry Cordial Candy Kisses	Smart Foods Pop Corn

Over in another part of the room, many joined Cheryl for the completion of the birthday cards. Each birthday card contains a $5.00 bill, and will be mailed by the Class Rep to each Mid to arrive on or just before their birthday. Also, an animated, electronic with audio version of the birthday card will be sent by the Class Rep to each Mid for whom we have a private email address.

Jay and Celeste Drake, '10 Class Reps; Andy and Joanne Weintraub, '09 Class Reps; Shawn Sefton and Rafael Ortega; '08 Class Reps; and Doug and Patti Yoffe, '07 Class Reps are all indispensable to the success of these initiatives. They are the Club members who made the address labels, and who will send out the snail mail and email birthday cards. Also, because our Mids don't always tell us everything we want to know, the Class Reps will email the Parents in their class when those birthday cards have been sent.

Cheryl and Doug were the first to arrive at Town Spa to bring in all the goodies for the Valentine's Day/Dark Ages packages, which would have remained nothing but stacks of goodies were it not for the cheerful participation of the rest of us in getting those goodies into the labeled mailing envelopes and then getting those envelopes into shipping boxes arranged according to Brigade companies. Midshipman Aaron Okun '07 has graciously agreed to have those boxes shipped to him and then he will see to it that each Mid gets his or her package.

As if this were not enough activity for one event, our Treasurer, Mark Engdahl, arranged for a Firstie Seminar. At about 8:30, he and Past Presidents Betsy and Ralph Szymczak (Neil '06) and Karen and Steve Boodakian (David '05) slipped into another room in the restaurant for a presentation and Q/A session about Commissioning week. Firstie Parents and some 2C Parents made the most of that opportunity to learn what to expect and how to prepare for Commissioning Week in anticipation of the rapidly approaching 2007 Commissioning, to be followed in the blink of an eye by the 2008 Commissioning. Kudos to Mark, Betsy and Ralph, and Karen and Steve for a job well done, and thank you to the Firstie and 2C Parents for asking the questions we all want answered.

Bravo to all members who contributed to the success of this event by joining the assembly line, helping with the birthday cards, making a donation, participating in the Firstie Seminar, or any combination of those. Events such as these are what our Club is all about and we acknowledge with gratitude those who preceded us and on whose shoulders we stand, and those who will follow us in continuing these programs and developing new ones.

We look forward to being together again at our Annual Meeting on Sunday, April 22. Watch your mailboxes and emails for more information about that event at which there will be a guest speaker and the gavel will be turned over to Shawn Sefton and Rafael Ortega, who we know will be Presidents par excellence.

Click this link for all the pictures!