“Second Chance Prom,” BBRC Anniversary Dinner

Although most BBRC members do not remember the date of their first high school prom, no one will forget the date of the BBRC Second Chance Prom: 11/11/11. Not only that, the evening began with a raging hailstorm that dropped 2 inches of ice balls from H_ _ _ on the roads, as our prom-goers made their way to the Hilton.

Upon arrival, we were welcomed by our hosts, Paul and Shannon Chapman and Elena Howell, to a beautiful room filled with black and silver balloons and, unlike high school, bartenders ready to take orders.

Lacking a bell, the evening was called to order by your humble correspondent, who also served as the emcee for the evening. Jim Gordon introduced our Color Guard from the Blue Angels Squadron, including the following outstanding young men: LTJG Curt Russell, Commanding Officer, Petty Officer 3rd Class Wasnick, Color Guard Captain, Seaman Snyder, Seaman Russell, and Seaman Apprentice Van Wagner.

The Blue Angels Squadron is part of a national organization called the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps. It is the local unit that drills at the Coast Guard base in Seattle and is sponsored by the Seattle Council of the Navy League. This is a program of U.S. Naval adventure, dedicated to helping young men and women, ages 12 through 18, realize personal success and achievement through a nautically oriented training program.

Following the Color Guard’s posting of the colors, Peter Powell provided a moving invocation in which he honored our military veterans. As guests were seated, the emcee invited all military veterans to come to the front of the room so they could be honored and thanked, as she read the following:

As we, tonight, honor our military veterans, please listen to the words of our country’s greatest leader, a man who, when many believed our country to be irretrievably broken, brought us together as one nation under God.

 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

 

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Following a wonderful dinner came the moment all had been waiting for, the crowning of the Second Chance Prom King and Queen. Ann Norman, President of The Accounting Firm of Ann Norman CPA, read the rigid protocol that should be used in the dispersal, collection, tabulation, calculation, tallying, transference and safekeeping of the all-important ballots which were cast in this highly regulated contest. When asked whether she had presided over this strict protocol in the case of the Second Chance Prom balloting, Ann scoffed, “Are you kidding? This is Rotary, so who knows how they came up with the winners?”

Who knows, indeed! As it turns out, the Prom King was our own BBRC president, John Martinka. And … the Prom Queen turned out to be the evening’s emcee, your humble correspondent, Jenny Andrews. Okay, seriously, I never touched the ballots! I wasn’t even at the meeting the day the voting took place! I did, however Simonize Ann Norman’s car Wednesday afternoon but I don’t think that had anything to do with the decision.Finally President-King John Martinka, wearing his beautiful golden crown, performed a lovely induction ceremony for the BBRC’s newest member, Traci Tenhulzen. After that, we were off to the best part of the evening: the dancing! Our DJ Ricky Nelson, (Yes, that is seriously his name!) did a great job plying us with Prom favorites.

Golfing With the Elves

The BBRC Annual Golfing with the Elves will be held at Mt. Si Golf Course, at 9:00 AM, on Saturday, December 24th. If you can ski in June, there is no reason not to golf in December.

Contact Norm Johnson for your tee time.