President, Bob Garagiola opened the meeting at noon with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by the “Four Way Test”.
Pete Mine delivered a heart-felt invocation.
Beth Russell followed with a song dedicated to our guest speaker, Frank Viverito. She surprised Frank and wowed the crowd with her version of, “Frankie Baby”:
“Frankie Baby
(Sung to the tune of Santa Baby)
Frankie baby, slip a ticket under the tree for
me
Been an awful good girl
Frankie baby, I want to see the Musial Awards.
Frankie baby, Missouri Valley Conference would
do, with a view
I’ll wait up for you, dear
Frankie baby, so hurry make the arrangements for two.
Think of all the fun I’ve missed
Think of all the games that could just bring me bliss
Next year I could be so good
If you add Biz Dash to my list
Frankie baby, I want more sports and really that’s
not a lot
Been an angel all year
Frankie baby, just make my sports dreams really come true.”
Jack Windish filled in for Dan Conway, Sgt at Arms., and introduced guests and visiting Rotarians.
Announcements:
Phil Hesley took the podium and asked for donations to the “Giving Tree” which would benefit seven needy families.
President Bob announced there was still room to attend the Holiday Party Friday night the 13th at the MAC
Lift for Life Gym announced their Holiday Party for the 17th and asked for volunteers to help decorate Tuesday afternoon.
Bob Sherrill announced that election forms had been mailed out and the final tally would take place at the MAC on Thursday Morning the 19th of December and the winners would be announced at the Rotary meeting on the same day.
Steve Banton from the West County Rotary Club announced that he had nuts and cashews to sell after the meeting.
Mike Regan took the podium to introduce our guest speaker, Frank Viverito, president of the St. Louis Sports Commission.
This is a privately funded nonprofit organization which is dedicated to attracting, creating and managing major sporting events for the St. Louis region.
Frank started his talk with a tongue in cheek remark that the menu called for Cannelloni, instead we were served fish.
Frank gave a summation of some of the great events that were coming to St. Louis in the near future. He mentioned the MLS soccer team and the new stadium to be built.
The Missouri Valley Basketball conference contracted was being extended. St. Louis will also have a professional football team called the Battle Hawks.
We are also in contention for a NASCAR event. Centene will build a sports arena in the Maryland height area and a rededication of Francis field to be named Francis Olympic Field is scheduled to take place.
Frank was also excited to announce the US Olympic Team trials for the Tokyo games will take place June 25th to the 28th.
He also talked about the NHL All Star Weekend, the 30th Annual Missouri Valley Conference Championships and NCAA Basketball Quarter finals in March.
The highlight of the program was the video of the recent Musial Awards which take place at the Stifel auditorium in downtown St. Louis. This year, the event will be aired on National television on CBS Saturday, December 21, 2019. The video told the story of a 10 year-old boy who was a die-hard Red Sox fan who heard that Chris Davis, who plays for the Baltimore Orioles was in a terrible batting slump. The little boy wrote a letter encouraging him to keep trying and not give up. He told the major leaguer that being a good person was more important than baseball. Chris Davis carried that letter in his back pocket and the next game he had three hits after going 0 for 54 in his previous at bats.
Next year’s event has been named, The Stantennial, in honor of Stan Musial and will be held on his would be 100th birthday, Saturday, November 21,2020.