With the tap of the bell President Lane Kay once again opened the meeting for the Greatest Club in the Universe!  Charter Member and Past Pres. Jim Main (87-88) introduced his guest, Omelet House owner Kevin Mills and then we were off to a very busy meeting. 

President Lane ran through the long list of announcements (see Save the Dates below) with special emphasis on District Conference from May 16-19th in beautiful San Diego.  Projects Chair Rob Goldstein asked members to send him a note if they are interested in serving at the Ronald McDonald House on June 20th.  Having no member birthdays during the month of May, Rob is also looking for an Agassi Birthday Bash captain.

President Lane then moved on to acknowledgements for the 2013 Block Party.  After the thanking the entire committee and members for all of the long hours they spent planning our Club's signature event, he gave a note of gratitude to several members - to Pres. Elect Robin Smith for filling in as emcee, to Past Pres. Allen Puliz (04-05/06-07) for his outstanding role is auctioneer, to Cameron Christianson for securing the Las Vegas Tenors, to Colleen Braid for inviting the Phat Pack and to April Main for introducing us to Faith Lutheran Junior Sarah Paravia who opened our event with "Sweet Caroline" as a tribute to the recent Boston Marathon victims and survivors.  He also acknowledged Greg Clemens for having too much fun at a recent wine tasting event (sure there is a longer story there).

Block Party Co-Chair Carla Smith presented Four Queens employees Tami Hall and Vinnie Jacobsen with flowers from the all of our members for the outstanding service they provided with the delicious food and set up before the Block Party.  Carla also had presented flowers to Megan Conklin of the Fremont Street Experience prior to our meeting for the extraordinary job she and her team did on our event.

Cross-fines were relatively quiet considering our recent party - maybe folks are still recovering? To PP Allen for revealing his secret talent as an auctioneer and stealing the show, to PP Jim  for helping on the wine raffle with a curiously almost always empty wine glass, to Pres. Elect Elect Ray for not bidding more on the puppy, to Teresa Sowers, Carla Smith & Marilene Nevins for manning the check-in table all night and never leaving during the event and for keeping Carla up all night while they completed the evening's accounting.  Finally a self-fine to Past Pres. Roger Tabor (02-03) for his son Griffin Tabor's recent world robotics championship, participating with 20,000 other entrants.  Congratulations Griffin!!!

Jeff Gordon is President and CEO of the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation in Las Vegas, founded in 1993 at a time when no treatment was available to any child stricken with critical illnesses.  Their goal is to improve the quality of life for critically ill children and their families living in our community. When a child is diagnosed with cancer or other life threatening illness...they can look to the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation for support, hope, and courage.  The MISSION of the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation is to provide social, emotional, educational, and psychological support services and programs to families of ALL children diagnosed with life threatening or critical illnesses such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, sickle cell, hemophilia, renal disorders, and immunologic diseases and provide healing arts and wellness programs to adults touched by cancer and to chronically ill children and their caregivers. These services are provided to the families with 24 hours of the diagnosis.   NCCF supports those who fight a daily battle against disease, therefore, NCCF added healing arts and wellness services for critically ill children and their caregivers as well as hosting a second location (and new program) servicing adults touched by cancer.  NCCF has also set up a classroom in one of our local hospitals to serve students who have extended hospital stays.  It is the only classroom in the Nation that is run by a non-profit.  Because NCCF is not funded by any government programs or agencies, they rely solely on the community for funding and volunteers - 91 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to services.  Camp Cartwheel is one of their largest programs with 180 people requiring counseling during the camp.  This requires a large number of volunteers.  Check out their website for more information on their organization.