Author: Mary Pucel

We have a new recipient program for our monthly food shelf donations: Ralph Reeder Food Shelf. It's a program associated with the Mounds View school district, whose mission is "to provide emergency and supplemental food assistance to individuals and families who are food insecure and to connect them to other helpful resources in a manner that preserves their dignity, while they work towards stabilization."

We'd like to re-energize our long-standing food shelf donations in order to maximize our impact. Please bring non-perishable food items to each membership meeting. They'll be collected and dropped off to the food shelf by Emma and Joey, as they live nearby.

Thanks in advance for helping those in need!

This is really exciting. Please help to spread the word! Go to redcrossblood.org and sign up. Plus, tell your friends!

It's been a few years since two USS Nokomis members became engaged to be married. It's your turn!

Not really. There will be no green beer (that I know of). However, dressing in green is definitely on the menu!

The 16th annual beer tasting and competition will take place on March 9th, starting at 4:00 pm. You do not have to compete in the tasting to attend, of course, and can simply enjoy the St Patrick's Day fun.

If you are competing, please arrive by 4:30pm and bring 4-6 bottles of your entry. The tasting will begin at 5:00 pm. All types of beer, hard cider, malt beverage, near beer, maltini, non-alcoholic beer or malternative are welcome. You can even enter a soda if you'd like to, as you never know what will win. Keep in mind that the Bad Beer Board is also up for grabs.

The party is also a potluck and the buffet will open at 5:00 pm. People who are tasting beer should eat a lot, so please bring a dish to share. Jack and I will provide soda and there is always beer left over, but if you want anything else to drink please bring it along.

Remember, the party moves back to its point of origin this year - our home in St Anthony. Drop me a line at if you need directions or want to discuss your food or beverage offerings.

Mary

Greetings, crew!

I hope everybody made it through the Vortex and is warm. Did you see St Anthony Village in the world news, with all of our frozen pants? You never know what we'll do when going outside can freeze our skin in 30 seconds!

This is a very important year for our creative process. Remember back in 2006, when we built our amazing sets and put in thousands of hours of work? This year we have to transfer those sets to their new home on the 4th floor of the Hyatt Regency. Every one of you can be part of the fun. Since we made our sets to be movable and to fit in various areas, we'll have only a tiny fraction of the time to put in, but we need everybody that can help just in case! Please be on the lookout for our meetings and (if needed) construction days.

Before we go to CONvergence, there's a whole lot of fun to be had. We have Axe Throwing, the St Patrick's Party, the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair, MarsCon, our annual Chuckwagon fundraiser, a Brewery Tour, and more. Best of all, it's our 35th anniversary with our annual picnic!!! That's pretty cool, and we'll do some cool things to celebrate. Let me know if you want to be part of the planning for the fun.

See you around the galaxy!

Mary

This is going to be fun! The theme for this year's convention is Legends In Our Own Minds, and we'll be hosting a party room. Check out the convention information at marscon.org.

Our theme will be that legendary Star Trek episode - Spectre of the Gun. Get together your Western duds and plan to have fun on Friday and Saturday nights at the convention. You can go all-out Wild West, Trek up your Starfleet uniform, or get creative with an idea of your own. Everyone is welcome to have a Star-saparilla and to greet our guests and see if we can uphold our tradition of a welcoming, great party room.

For those who can help, please be at the hotel for set-up on Friday, March 1st by noon. We'll set up and open by 8pm. Also, please plan to help with the take-down on Sunday, March 3rd at 9am. The more, the merrier!

Plans are progressing for the move to the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Minneapolis, and it's pretty exciting! We need some team meetings for this one, since it will be different for us. Please sign up on the website or let Mary know if you can help. We'll start meeting soon.

Great job, team!! The group that packed for Sierra Leone on January 22nd did more volume than ever before. Along with the other groups present, we packed 121 boxes of food. That's a total of 26,136 meals and enough to feed 71 kids for a whole year! We'll go back in July to do more good. Watch for the signup opportunity in the coming months.

On February 9th we'll be going where no USS Nokomis member has gone before (at least, we thing that's true). We have a reservation at Bad Axe Minneapolis to have some fun. The facility is at 2505 Kennedy Street NE Minneapolis and our reserved time is at 5:30pm.

Our event includes two reserved targets, an axe throwing coach, and two hours of axe throwing fun. We can bring in our own food and beverage, so we'll have a potluck while we throw.

The cost is $39.25 per thrower. We must hit a minimum of throwers to get our spot, so be sure to sign up at the January meeting or on the website as soon as possible. If you have friends and family who'd like to come, they're welcome. You must sign them up for the throwing and potluck.

Here are some answers to questions you may have, from the FAQ:

• They require everyone who throws to wear closed-toed shoes.
• In the winter they recommend you make sure to wear layers because it gets a little cold, but other than that just wear something comfortable.
• They have never had anyone hurt or injured in any way.  It is completely safe and they are very strict in making sure that everyone is throwing the axes in a safe manner. You are, however, required to sign a waiver. You can do it ahead of time online, or when you get there.
• If you can't throw, you can come to cheer on your crewmates at no cost.

Now doesn't that sound like fun?

Mary