Kiwanis By the Bay

KIWANIS EVENTS

The 7th Annual Concert to Benefit Big Brothers, Big Sisters of the Peninsula

Our Kiwanis By the Bay Club is sponsoring a wonderful benefit concert to be held Saturday, March 1st, 8 p.m. at the American Theater in Downtown Phoebus. The artists are guitarist Stephen Bennett and his brother, pianist, Jim Bennett. All proceeds will go to Big Brothers/Big Sisters in our community, a very worthy organization.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS... Stephen Bennett was born in Oregon, grew up in New York and has lived in Virginia for the last three decades. Since his 1987 first-place win at the National Flatpicking Championship in Winfield, Kansas (The Walnut Valley Festival), he has become known as a versatile guitarist who consistently garners critical praise and audience enthusiasm for his compositions and live performances. With his stellar musicianship, a relaxed stage presence, and quick wit, Stephen has performed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as in Canada, Australia and Japan . With fifteen self-produced CD recordings to his credit at this writing, a new Stephen Bennett recording is probably in the works at any given moment. Aside from his work on the six-string guitar, Stephen is also one of the world's premiere performers on the Harp Guitar, an instrument he indirectly inherited from his great-grandfather. As a composer and arranger, he has created an enduring repertoire and a significant body of recorded work for this instrument. Three of his harp guitar compositions have been included in compilations on the Narada label, and three other of his pieces have been licensed by the Bose Corporation. Stephen performs regularly around the United States, Europe, and Japan. May 12, 2001 saw him performing on Garrison Keillor 's A Prairie Home Companion at Norfolk 's Chrysler Hall. Armed with a standard six-string, an old National steel resonator guitar, his harp guitar, a broad repertoire, and thirty-five years of guitar playing experience, Stephen Bennett engages his audiences with an entertaining show of first-rate musicianship.

Pianist Jim Bennett has been making music for most of his life. His background is eclectic, as is his playing style. He loves to play ragtime, stride piano, swing, blues, rock and classical music. He has two solo recording, "Prayer" CD release concert for "Brothers" .

Many of you are still talking about last year's show that featured Stephen's brother, Jim playing with him on that stunning Steinway piano at the American Theatre. Stephen and Jim were so taken with the sound that they decided to do a long-requested CD together recorded using the beautiful acoustics of the theatre. Recording engineer Kim Person has again worked her magic and the three have produced the beautiful CD "Brothers." It's only fitting that the "Brothers" do a CD Release show in the very spot where they recorded it. Big Brothers/Big Sisters is very grateful for their return for our 7th Annual Benefit Concert! Please do what you can to come out and support this show.

You can order CD's directly at http://www.harpguitar.com/cd.htm.

Kiwanis By the Bay Donates Wheels

In April, Kiwanis By the Bay donated $3,000.00 to Robert R. Moton Early Childhood Center. With this donation, Moton purchased 23 tricycles and 18 youth helmets for their four and five year old students. On June 8, 2007, Kiwanis By the Bay came out to Moton to view the new wheels. The center is excited about the purchase and the students love these fancy new tricycles. Last year, the school acquired a tricycle track. Now, at any given time, the whole class can go out for a ride. The faculty and staff wanted to thank the Kiwanians for their support so they lined up the new wheels and allowed the Kiwanians to take the wheels for a spin!!

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Special Olympics

The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round training and athletic competition in a variety of well-coached fun for citizens with mental retardation, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness skills and demonstrate courage.

The Hampton Special Olympics program was developed approximately 40 years ago with ten members who had branched off from the Norfolk Area 2 program. They started to grow immediately in size with athletes who were in search for a program that allowed them to express their ability to achieve. During the second year of the programs existence the athletics population went from ten to fifty and still continued to grow. The events that were offered to the athletes during this time were bowling, skiing, basketball, track & field, power lifting, tennis, volleyball and soccer. These events were coached and maintain by volunteers from the local school system.

Over the forty years of the Hampton Special Olympics existence, it has grown to having more than two hundreds registered athletics enrolled at one time or another. We are presently working with a population of eighty to ninety athletes in a given year. We offer such sports as track & field, softball, swimming, bowling, soccer, golf, tae won do, and basketball. We are currently participating in swimming, softball skills, bowling and track & field competitions throughout the areas of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Newport News and Hampton. On June 8 nth through 10 nth , Hampton Special Olympics will be traveling to the University of Richmond for their annual state competition. They will meet with more than 6,000 or more other athletes from throughout the state of Virginia for competition.

Contact: Brenda Poole @ 928-6846

“Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."

During the month of May, the Special Olympics played in a basketball competition in Virginia Beach. These students are varied in age and skill abilities. They may have played on a half-court team or full-court team or they could have participated in individual skills, but they all received a gold or first place medal during this competition.