Trot Thru the Woods 2010 - We are looking for Sponsors

If you know anyone who would be interested, tell them to contact Laura Crites or myself. Here is the Letter we already sent out to local businesses around Warson Woods:

"Dear Sir/Madam,

The Warson Woods Running Club has begun plans for this year’s “Trot Thru the Woods” 5K run and “Run Around the Block” .5K for the younger runners and those who prefer a slower pace. The event is scheduled for November 27, 2010, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The club seeks to promote community spirit and support the healthy lifestyle enjoyed in Warson Woods.

Last year’s event was overwhelmingly successful. It hosted 230 participants and 24 volunteers. Mustering community spirit with many local businesses’ support and sponsorship from the law firm of Behr, McCarter, and Potter, PC and Rohan Woods School, the run achieved its goal of encouraging youth exercise by including more than 50 young racers (under 12 years). In addition the “Trot Thru the Woods” was able to make a donation to “The Backstoppers”.

This year we hope to grow significantly! Our goal is to add at least 100 runners and double the number of youth participation. Demonstrating our commitment to young people, the running club has chosen to donate all profit to “Friends of Wings”. This organization provides pediatric hospice services in our community, see www.friendsofwings.com.

The running club is looking for merchant support and sponsorship for the “Trot Thru the Woods”. Can your business provide support for run? We need food, water, coffee and sports drinks, as well as monetary contributions for the clock, medals for the children, race day goody bags and their contents, printing, and t-shirt advertisements. All contributions will be acknowledged in promotional information on the day of the run. Those who contribute at the $250 level will be designated an official race “Sponsor” and so acknowledged with their logos on the t-shirts and two 5K entries.

Please contact me via email or by phone if you can help in anyway. This is a great opportunity to support the Warson Woods community as it further seeks to distinguish itself.

Many thanks for your consideration,

Laura Crites, “Trot Thru the Woods” Committee
Email:runww@sbcglobal.net"

"Protecting God's Children" Workshop

As I am gearing up to coach soccer at Ste Genevieve du Bois, I had to go through the "Protecting God's Children" Class last night. 150 people attended the class and after over 2 hours of heart breaking footage of molested children and testimonies from child molesters, I wanted to know how many offenders were registered in our neighborhood.

I simply went on the Family WatchDog web site and plugged my Zip Code. Here is a copy of the Map of the Warson Woods area... 337 registered offenders...(click on Map to enlarge).

Are you for real?

We all have crazy schedule these days, but always remember that when your child is with you....that your child is ....with you...

And my personal favorite:

Last Adult Party at the Pool! Join us!!

Boys Night at the Pool!!

Trot Thru the Woods 2010 - Entry Form

Don’t start your holiday running around alone; run with friends! Mark your calendars now for the second annual “Trot Thru the Woods” 5K and “Run Around the Block” half-mile family event, scheduled November 27, 2010 starting at 8AM (5K) and 9AM (.5 mile). The challenging course begins at Rohan Woods School in Warson Woods. The half mile run encourages youth participation offering no entry fee for participant 8 years and younger, everyone must register. This year the “Trot Thru the Woods” is proud to be teamed up with “Friends of Wings”, with all profits going to support pediatric hospices services. Fill out the entry form today and start the holiday season off in full stride.

Here is the Link to the 2010 Trot Entry Form!!

WWSC - Girls Night Out - The Sequel!!

Operation Food Search - Volunteers Needed

I just got this email from my friend Mike O'Shea, a WW. resident. He is a great guy and he needs some help this coming Saturday.

"Hello and good morning,

I know this is coming last minute, but I volunteered for Operation Food Search this weekend...(see info below my note)...and at the last minute, the group that was supposed to do the Wal-mart on Hanley Rd. in Richmond Heights, had to back out. On Thursday, I was asked to see if I could put together a group to staff the Wal-mart and help collect donations.

So, with this task in mind, I am sending out an invite/request: if anyone would like to come on out this Saturday to the Wal-mart at Hanley Rd. in Richmond Heights and help, or just come on out and hang out and laugh at me, I would appreciate it.

The hours are 9 to 5, but with a limited resources, we might just do the morning, unless we get volunteers for the whole day...in which case I will stay the whole time...which may either cause you to volunteer or run the other way. Payment would be my enormous thanks and truly helping out those in need. I am sending this out with the addresses in BCC, which is a new way of doing things for me, because I did not want to clog up the e-mail with addresses, so if you know of anyone who might like to help or you think would be fun, or that did not get this e-mail/I may have forgotten, by all means, please forward this to them. It should be a good and rewarding time.

Or if you happen to be in the area and want to say hello, please stop on by.

Thank you,

Mike O'Shea

O'Shea-Ward Insurance Group
www.OSHEA-WARD.com

Cell: 314-482-3561
Office: 314-774-0702
Fax: 888-358-9244

One Day · One Purpose · End Hunger

Operation Food Search - Dedicated Volunteers:

More of our neighbors are experiencing something many never thought possible in our plentiful area…hunger. Over 120,000 people in greater St. Louis region need the help of food pantries to provide meals for their families. Many are coming for the first time never imagining that they would need to ask for help. Almost half that receive food are children.

Our local food pantries are struggling to keep up with the increased demand. To this end, Operation Food Search SENTralized, and the Community Council of St. Charles County, are teaming up to sponsor the 2nd Annual Saturday Jubilee Food Drive

What can you do?

Volunteer on July 31st: Over 600 volunteers are needed to position themselves outside 41 grocery stores throughout the St. Louis area to ask shoppers to donate food as they shop on Saturday July 31st. This is a great volunteer opportunity for your Church Group, Scout Troup, Civic Group or just to bring your kids and get them involved!

Get started TODAY… go to www.saturdayjubilee.com and sign up to be a “Store Captain”. All you have to do is organize a group of 15-20 volunteers to staff a store for the day. All materials needed will be provided. A short training meeting will be conducted for the Store Captains the week before the event.

If you can’t be a Store Captain but would like to be involved…volunteer for a 2 hour shift and we’ll team you with other fun volunteers.

Conduct a food drive: Conduct a food drive at your work, your church, in your neighborhood or as a family project during July or August. Please call Gary(314)-726-5355 ext. 15 at Operation Food Search if you need containers for larger collections or if you would like posters or other information to help promote your food drive.

Your help is needed … each bag of groceries makes a difference in the life of our neighbor who is struggling. Please be involved … with your help, hurting families in our community can receive welcomed relief during these tough economic times. "

Tax Holiday for Back-to-School Shoppers

Here is what is available in both Illinois and Missouri:

- Illinois: On Aug. 6-15, footwear and clothing with a sales price of less than $100 per item and school supplies will be exempt.

- Missouri: On Aug. 6-8, noncommercial purchases of clothing (but not accessories) with taxable value of $100 or less per item; school supplies up to $50 per purchase; computer software with taxable value of $350 or less; computers and computer peripherals up to $3,500 are exempt. Localities may opt out. If less than two percent of a retailer’s merchandise qualifies, the retailer must offer a refund of sales tax paid if the customer requests one, in lieu of the tax holiday.

Science knows when life begins (why doesn't the PD?)

I came accross a very interesting piece in the St. Louis Post Dispatch last week written by one of our WW residents - Charles Harrison. In case you missed it, here it is... and I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

"In a recent editorial, "Profiles in Punting," The Post-Dispatch asserts that believing that life begins at conception is a "religious, theological and, indeed, metaphysical question" and that "science has not established the precise moment when human life begins."

I offer the following medical and scientific (non-religious) publications to support the scientific fact that human life does indeed begin at the moment of conception:

"Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoo developmentn) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual."

"A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo)."

Keith L. Moore, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2003. pp. 16, 2.

"Development begins with fertilization, the process by which the male gamete, the sperm, and the femal gamete, the oocyte, unite to give rise to a zygote."

T.W. Sadler, Langman's Medical Embryology, 10th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006. p. 11.

"[The zygote], formed by the union of an oocyte and a sperm, is the beginning of a new human being."

Keith L. Moore, Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology, 7th edition. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders, 2008. p. 2.

"Although life is a continuous process, fertilization (which, incidentally, is not a 'moment') is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new genetically distinct human organism is formed when the chromosomes of the male and female pronuclei blend in the oocyte."

Ronan O'Rahilly and Fabiola Müller, Human Embryology and Teratology, 3rd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss, 2001. p. 8.

"Human embryos begin development following the fusion of definitive male and female gametes during fertilization... This moment of zygote formation may be taken as the beginning or zero time point of embryonic development."

William J. Larsen, Essentials of Human Embryology. New York: Churchill Livingstone, 1998. pp. 1, 14.

"It is the penetration of the ovum by a spermatozoan and resultant mingling of the nuclear material each brings to the union that constitues the culmination of the process of fertilization and marks the initiation of the life of a new individual."

Clark Edward Corliss, Patten's Human Embryology: Elements of Clinical Development. New York: McGraw Hill, 1976. p. 30.

"The term conception refers to the union of the male and female pronuclear elements of procreation from which a new living being develops."

"The zygote thus formed represents the beginning of a new life."

J.P. Greenhill and E.A. Friedman, Biological Principles and Modern Practice of Obstetrics. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1974. pp. 17, 23.

"Every time a sperm cell and ovum unite a new being is created which is alive and will continue to live unless its death is brought about by some specific condition."

E.L. Potter and J.M. Craig, Pathology of the Fetus and the Infant, 3rd edition. Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, 1975. p. vii.

"Every baby begins life within the tiny globe of the mother's egg... It is beautifully translucent and fragile and it encompasses the vital links in which life is carried from one generation to the next. Within this tiny sphere great events take place. When one of the father's sperm cells, like the ones gathered here around the egg, succeeds in penetrating the egg and becomes united with it, a new life can begin." - 13

Geraldine Lux Flanagan, Beginning Life. New York: DK, 1996. p. 13.

"Biologically speaking, human development begins at fertilization."

The Biology of Prenatal Develpment, National Geographic, 2006.

"The two cells gradually and gracefully become one. This is the moment of conception, when an individual's unique set of DNA is created, a human signature that never existed before and will never be repeated."

In the Womb, National Geographic, 2005.

The American Medical Association (AMA) declared as far back as 1857 (referenced in the Roe vs. Wade opinion) that "the independent and actual existence of the child before birth, as a living being" is a matter of objective science.

Maybe if the Post-Dispatch weren't so zealously protective of abortion on demand, it might consider the scientific evidence that abortion, even at the very earliest stages of pregnancy, destroys a "separate, unique, living human being.

Charles L. Harrison

Warson Woods"