Author: Mary Pucel

Greetings, Crew!

We've had some fun in the past weeks, with more coming right up. Time flies!

Special thanks to Dave for sharing a fun-tastic bowling party with us. We had a great time at Park Tavern, with a sizeable group bowling and others doing the cheering. The food was good, the facility was great, and the company was the best.

Next weekend we have our next chance to support the community as we make blanket for My Very Own Bed. You don't need any special skill to help, and if you want to hang out and visit, that's OK too. We need a cheering section (see above). Thanks in advance to Lynne and Phill for hosting the meeting and activity.

The next community support activity we'll be doing is volunteering for the Special Olympics USA Game in June. This is a huge, nation-wide event with 16–20 sports, featuring 4,000 athletes, 1,500 coaches, and 10,000 volunteers.  We are targeting June 21st to sign up, volunteering to hand out food to athletes and coaches in Blaine. There are also unlimited opportunities on the U of M campus from the 21st to the 26th. Let me or Emma know ASAP if you are interested, or let us know at the meeting.

We're also looking forward to our 42nd annual anniversary picnic and meeting on June 20th, the CONvergence Blood Drive, Garden Party, MN United Loons Game, and more. Plus, there's a new season of Strange New Worlds coming in July. It's going to be a fun summer!

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

It's hard to believe, but we've hosted 49 blood drives so far and the 60th year of Star Trek will see our 50th drive! It's on July 3rd at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis during CONvergence. Sign up here to donate and spread the word.

Greetings, Crew!

There’s been a lot of news in the Star Trek world recently. The cancellation of Starfleet Academy leads the pack. I am a firm believer that all Trek is good Trek, as the alternative is no Trek, so I’m disappointed. I really enjoyed the show, even though young adult shows have never been my favorites. Well, except for Smallville!

Another nugget is the upcoming Season 4 of Strange New Worlds, set to happen in mid-to-late summer. I’m betting that it coincides with the 60th anniversary in September, cause why not? And the casting of McCoy and Sulu is intriguing, isn’t it? And there are rumors flying about the upcoming Star Trek: Year One, which would follow Captain Kirk and The Crew in the early days. Supposedly it’s been officially pitched – we’ll see!

And then there’s the real world, where this has been one heck of a year already. We hope you’ll take a break and join us for some fun at our meeting on Saturday and at the Bowling Party on April 25th. It’ll be fun to see you.

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

Thanks to everyone that volunteered or donated at our drive at MarsCon. We had a little adventure when the big bloodmobile didn’t show up! They sent out a smaller, new one that worked just great and we were able to have a productive day after all. We collected enough blood to touch about 60 patients’ lives, and that’s what it’s all about. Our CONvergence drive on July 3rd will be our 50th blood drive!!! Since our start in 2001 we’ve impacted thousands of lives, and we hope you’re all proud as you should be.

Greetings, Crew!

We're off and running on another fun summer. Congratulations to several of our members that have graduates in the family, both high school and college!

Thanks to Scott, we had a great time at our Stillwater Journey to Babble a few weeks ago. Lunch at Stillwater Proper was excellent, followed by time at 45th Parallel's tasting room, River Siren Brewing, and Lift Bridge Brewery. It's always fun to try new places.

One thing we aren't doing this summer is our traditional Feed My Starving Children packing date. Due to some other priorities, we can't find a date when enough people can attend. We look forward to our next volunteer packing date in January.

I hope to see many of you at our anniversary picnic and meeting on June 14th. I've been saving some Peeps for a couple of years, so they should fly well. Bring along your best idea/implement/contraption to propel the Peep the farthest. Don't forget: no fire, no explosives, the Peep must at some point fly free, and we must be able to recognize your Peep after you've had your turn. Yes, all of those rules have been finely crafted over the years due to clever tossing ideas! We'll have fabulous prizes, too.

Finally, we need many donors (47 as of this writing) for our 25th Annual CONvergence Blood Drive on July 5th. We'll have some fun extras, like a special selfie frame and prize drawings. Plus, every donor gets a pair of Goodr Red Cross sunglasses and our exclusive Blood Donor Badge Ribbon. Every one of you can help by donating or passing the word to people who'll be at Con. The drive runs from 9:30 to 3:30 on the Bloodmobile. Go to redcrossblood.org to sign up, and please send this link to others.

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

Greetings, Crew!

I hope you are all doing well. It's been an interesting few weeks and I know we're all looking forward to summer. We hope to see you at the meeting on Saturday and our upcoming events. We have picnics, outings, fun and games planned and it should be a great time.

As you know, we are proud to be hosting our 25th annual CONvergence blood drive on July 5th. Please let your contacts know about it send this Blood Drive Sign-up Link to assist them. Red Cross has some amazing giveaways for donors, including a sweet solar portable lantern and a trip for two to anywhere in the United States! We will also do drawings for some USS Nokomis merchandise, and of course everybody gets the USS Nokomis Blood Donor Badge Ribbon just for coming to the drive. As of this writing we have no signups and a goal of 54, so spread the word!

Finally, don't forget that you are welcome to join us at TC Trek Trivia on the second Wednesday of each month. It's fun to see our friends from the wider fan community, so don't be shy. The best things about a bigger team is that each person can contribute a bit to the cause!

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

Greetings, Crew!

We've had a couple of eventful months, between fun stuff and community service. We'll continue both this Saturday at the membership meeting and blanket-making, and we hope to see you there. You'll hear about more upcoming shenanigans, like the annual anniversary picnic, our next Journey to Babble tour, CONvergence and summer fun.

Speaking of fun, let's talk TC Trek Trivia. We could use a couple more players, and if you're interested in joining us, the next opportunity is this Wednesday. Let me know if you want to participate. It's fun and the Driftwood Char Bar has great food. Check it out on Facebook.

See you around the Galaxy!

Mary

Thanks to those that donated blood at our 20th annual MarsCon Blood Drive. We hit our goal exactly and collected enough blood to touch up to 78 people! Thanks also to Roxanne and Dawn - we had a great time checking in donors, handing out badge ribbons, and visiting with con-goers. If you missed it, don't worry. We have our next blood drive coming up on July 5th at CONvergence, and it's our 25th anniversary of hosting blood drives! We'll have fun prizes and giveaways to share in the coming months.

We had an absolute blast at MarsCon! Our room was amazing, with a 10 Forward theme. It was great to hear many people talk about welcoming atmosphere.

Thanks to everyone that created an excellent environment, from the beautiful starfields and images, to the impressive bartop and backdrop, to the various brands of interstellar hooch, to the beautiful signage, to the Red and Green, it was great.

Many people chipped in to help this year, which is greatly appreciated. You know who you are - great job!