Young at Heart Luncheon–Spittin’ Image

Tuesday, September 11, we had our monthly YAH Luncheon. However, this was far from normal. We had a few moments to remember those who gave their lives in 9/11. We also had a nice piano prelude by Fred Scheffler.

This month, we tried something very different for us and made use of the gymnasium for our entire program. We had a Cabaret style program with music and jokes by “Spittin’ Image (Brian and Blain Swabb). We sat around our luncheon tables while enjoying the music and fun. This gave them a nice opportunity to mingle with our audience and interact.

They even took the opportunity while browsing our audience to pick one of the ladies to join them on the stage. She played spoons and sang with them.

We have our own talent and people who know how to have fun. Following the “Spittin’ Image performance, Anita Krull sang a song about the apples that we had on the tables and played her guitar. Incidentally, her guitar was almost identical with one on the twins. Same thing but smaller model. Perhaps hers is the “girls” model. No, I’m just teasing.

Following the entertainment, we enjoyed a very good Turkey Salad Croissant meal, finished with a Lemon Bar for dessert.

Thank you to all who made this great program possible:

• Lisa and the cooks
• 5/3rd Bank employees and our volunteers who served
• Fred Scheffler at the piano
• Set up crew for the set up of the room – much more this time with moving piano, setting up stage, etc.
• Drivers
• Dish washers
• Floyd Rietveld for his contribution through the design of the sound improvement panels and engineering work.
• “Spittin’ Image”, Brian and Blain Swabb (they let me use their sound system, too)

Prior to the program, I announced that we wanted feedback on how well you like this format. I got mixed reactions. Several, thought the sound wasn’t up to par with the auditorium, some preferred the padded seats in the auditorium but in general, the reaction to this change is positive. We will do this again, with some changes, but we will not do it on a regular basis since we do not have an appropriate sound system or stage of our own. But, you can be assured that we will do  it again. I am planning to get seat pads for the chairs to improved that part of the experience. However, the cost of sound equipment for the gym is certainly much more than our budget can handle at this time, so we would need to rent or borrow equipment each time we need it.

Next month, our own David Darkow will be speaking to us about the many changes to our Healthcare Benefits System (Medicare, ObamaCare) and how they might affect us and our long term health. You won’t want to miss this program. Dave worked many years for Social Security. Now, he has his own consulting business and regularly does information programs for employees who are nearing retirement.