Annual Christmas Party and Awards Dinner
Bring to a Close 2008
Lake Murray brought the year to a close in fine fashion with a
terrific Christmas Party, with 114 in attendance at Saluda Shoals on 20 December
2008.
Cdr Jeff Langlois started the evening off with a jolly set of reindeers singing for those in attendance. What a start to an evening highlighted with numerous award presentations, spectacular
door prizes, a new squadron sound system, and a rum punch mixed up by our new
bartenders, Laura and Joe Fadeley.
Let's look first at our awards of recognition for outstanding participation and effort by some of our members; then we'll get to the "fun" awards.
The evening actually wrapped up
with Past Commander Elaine Price presenting the squadron's most prestigious
award to an individual who has devoted extensive hours of service for many
years, but who only became a member five years ago.
The
Golden Anchor Award, Lake Murray's highest honor, was presented to Lt Cyndi
Langlois for her many hours of service as Lake Murray's bookkeeper.
The award is presented to a member of
long standing who "for distinguished and unselfish service to the squadron with
outstanding leadership, vision and ability." The bridge officers choose the
recipient, and officers, by the way, are not eligible for this award.
"There are people who work really hard
behind the scenes of our squadron," Elaine said in making the presentation. "A lot of you may not realize how much hard
work and how many hours some individuals give to the squadron. The recipient of
the 2008 Golden Anchor Award is one of those individuals.
"Cyndi has been an official member of USPS and the Lake Murray Power
Squadron for just five years, but has been active and involved for 11 years. So
active, in fact, that many people didn’t realize she wasn’t an official
member. Over the years, Cyndi has helped the special events chairpersons
with quite a few events, such as Change of Watch, the Dock Party, Christmas
parties, the Fourth of July barbecue and Labor Day cookouts. She has
helped to organize, set up and clean up, and made some absolutely beautiful
decorations.
"This past year, Cyndi gladly stepped forward to help with
the district conference silent auction, assisting with set up and helping the
treasurer distribute the items and collect payments. But probably the most
important contribution she has made is her technical accounting
expertise," Elaine said. "Several years ago, she brought us into the computer age by helping
setup the squadron’s accounting software. She devotes countless hours every
month entering information into the computer and producing financial reports,
both for the monthly bridge meetings and on-demand when we need a snapshot of
where we stand on a particular project. And she makes the reports simple enough
so that they actually make sense to us non-financial people, but detailed enough
so that we know exactly where we stand financially. She has been invaluable to
the squadron treasurers, commanders and in fact the entire bridge over the last
several years."
The Spark Plug Award was presented to Lts Vicki and Mack
McGahee. The is given to a new member of two years or less who started their
squadron career with a real spark.
And, Elaine said, "There was absolutely no question as to who would receive the
award for 2008. The recipients of this year’s award joined the squadron in the
spring of 2006 and really hit the ground running.
"It’s been hard to slow them down," Elaine said. "Anytime we
need a volunteer, there they are. They have participated in almost every work
day at Flotilla Island. They came with tools and a willingness to work hard,
even coming back to do some tasks we just couldn’t get around to on the
scheduled work days. They helped with the dock project. They helped with the
District Fall Conference hospitality suite this past October. They’ve been very
involved in both the VSC and education program, in fact they have served as VSC
chair and as boating course chair."
In addition to these awards, senior member plaques were
presented to Bill Mathias and Bill Burn, while a Power of One pin was presented
to Bob Bond for member recruitment.
On the lighter side with a serious notation, the Rusty Anchor Award was presented by Lt/C Andy Hyman, also known as last year's Rusty Anchor Recipient. It seems, Andy recounted for those not present at the incident, that during an unofficial gathering in No Name Cove on Lake Murray, Lt J Strohecker was busy conducting Vessel Safety Checks. After conducting several boat inspections, an additional boat tied up at the end of the raft-up so J headed off to offer his inspection services to the owner.
While climbing from one swim platform to another, J slipped and fell to the water, dropping his clipboard and submerging all of his paperwork. While he took some friendly jibbing and was the brunt of joking, deep down, something serious was occurring. It seems that in the process of his fall, he hit his shin on the swim platform and what started out to be simply a severe bruise and knot developed into a severe hematoma that required two surgeries and a month long recovery period.
While J is back to his normal fun loving self and is now fully recovered, as the LMPS Safety Officer, he knows first hand how a fun event can become serious while performing our duties. Never-the-less, for his unplanned entry into the waters of Lake Murray, Lt J Strohecker became our Rusty Anchor Award Recipient for 2008.
And, finally, the 2008 Bent Prop Award was presented by P/C Tony
Dodson to P/C David Price, marking the first time that a husband and wife have
each received the award.
David was very surprised, but the award committee
(composed of the previous year's recipient along with the chairman of the Boating Activities
Committee and P/C Elaine Price, who won the award in 2006)
determined that damages occurring to numerous squadron boats rafted near Bomb
Island this summer was an act of God and thus those captains were not eligible
candidates for the Bent Prop; leaving David Price with little to no competition
for the Bent Prop Award.
In making the award, Tony said, "As you know, in the Squadron
courses we are taught boating safety and to take boating seriously. We maintain
our boats and trailers, we make marina reservations, we inspect the charts,
check for Notices to Mariners, we prepare our routes and decide who will lead
the different legs of the trip and who runs sweep. After all, safety and
security of the group is of the utmost importance and everyone involved in any
of the leadership roles tries to be completely prepared ahead of time.
"This year’s winner must have been very excited about the cruise because he
missed a few things in preparing for the trip. It was a long cruise and the
waters unfamiliar, as the day was progressing and when we were nearing our
destination, our winner requested and was granted permission to take the lead.
Perhaps our winner had difficulty keeping his boat on plane
— or was just excited about starting a Dock
Party early!" Tony said, as he asked David to join him at the podium.
"David is this year’s 2008 Bent Prop Award winner for the following reasons:
David was not prepared to lead as it seemed he had not studied the chart,
prepared a route or taken precautions to avoid hazards. Was there any navigating
going on at all on Playin’ Hooky? During the act of taking the lead, a
soft grounding of his vessel occurred. Come to find out later, he was using his
Lake Murray chip in his GPS!
"In addition," Tony continued, "David failed to communicate his situation over
the VHF radio to foreworn the rest of the group thus causing two additional
vessels to run aground. And giving no regards to passenger safety, he even sent
one of his crewmembers in the water to dislodge his vessel. But before allowing
him back on board, insisted he wash himself off on the swim platform as to not
track mud into the cockpit!"
As you can tell from the photos, the Christmas Party was enjoyed by all. Well,
maybe everyone but P/C David Price. Special thanks to Christmas Party coordinators Anne Smith and Cyndi Langlois, Linda Richardson for the center pieces on each dinner table and to Linda Fanning for our door prizes. Click on the thumbnails below to open a
larger view of each photo.
