February 18 Meeting

We had a couple of guests today who are prospective members. Brad Bodecker who owns the Chevron station across the street from Johann's and Mike Michaud, a local chiropractor with Chugach Chiropractic. Mike turned in his new member application and we will be voting on him at the next board meeting at Pizza Man next Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 7pm. As usual, all members are welcome to attend.

Happy Buck Highlight: Martin turned 50 this week, so we all sang to him!

Youth Exchange: Katja is headed to Big Lake this weekend with the other area exchange students to watch the Iron Dog start.

Brad reminded us that District Conference is approaching soon from May 13-16 at the Captain Cook. We have a special deal on rooms for just $129/night. A great excuse to get away for the weekend.

Guest Speaker: Chris Tomsen gave a very interesting talk about the military academies. Becuase he represents West Point and is a graduate from there, he mostly focused on it, but he showed a short video that covered all of them. Most people forget that there are 5 academies: West Point, Anapolis, AF Academy, Coast Guard Academy, and the Merchant Marine Acadmey at Kings Point, New York. The goal of the acadmies is to "develop leaders to serve our nation in peace and wartime".

Since I still have 2 kids that need to find colleges, I thought he gave a great overview. Most kids don't start early enough to get into the academies, they need to start the spring of Junior year.  West Point is known for their great engineering program, in fact they are the US's first school of engineering, but they also offer degrees in math, science and humanities. After graduating from an acadmemy, graduates are obligated to 5 years active duty and 3 years reserve.  Any questions, talk to Chris or email him at eagleriver1@gmail.com .

Next week: Sami Oser is back from Bostwana