BIG BROTHER/BIG SISTER HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN

I received an e-mail this morning from John Starr's son, Jered, asking for donations for this year's Big Brother/Big Sister fundraising campaign. This is such a good program to support if you are looking for a way to spread some joy this holiday season.

If you wish to donate, or just check out the good things they're doing, click on the link below and follow the instructions!!

Keep up the good work, John and Jered!!

http://BFKS2008CR.kintera.org/faf/r.asp?t=4&i=257070&u=257070-197175932&e=1379235413

NEWS FROM JOHN STARR

Carron,

I had some serious back issues a while ago, and hadn’t bowled until this past Saturday. I had a few of my lower vertebrate decide to go out of place, and then refused to return to where they belonged in a timely manner. Then to top it all off, we went out to Pittsburgh in early October to visit with Becky’s sister and catch a Steelers game. To say the least, the trip was very hard on my back, but well worth the pain.
My Brother-in-law scored Jered and me field passes, so that was an experience all by itself. I have never been to a Pro game before, and have been a life-long Steelers fan, so this was a special treat.
I have enclosed a couple of pictures from the trip. The first is the family getting ready to eat at one of the local eateries, and the other is Jered and I on the field prior to the game.
See you soon on the alleys.

John Starr

THEY TOOK THE

LONG WAY

AROUND...

After a tour around Anamosa and a call to Mom Bungum, John and Becky finally found the Chrome Horse. He even got the memo.

STARR LIGHT, STARR BRIGHT, ETC...

Carron,

I have been extremely busy with Joshua's graduation ceremony and party planning, but that is behind us now.

As for bowling, of course we still need to line up a time this summer to get in some (serious bowling) nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Jered and I are bowling on Monday nights in the family doubles league, and I can't seem to get him to lighten up a little and take it as a fun league. Personally, I could care less where we finish in the standings as I tend to use the summer as a training and practice time for theFall/Winter league that I sub in. I'll try and get something set up for us and make the bowling event happen, so don't despair.

Thanks for keeping us all going and giving us some fun events to attend out of our normal routines. You are always welcome to call me at 361-****, if you need to get a hold of me in person.

Talk to you later,

John (Starr)

MESSAGE FROM JOHN STARR

Carron,

Thanks for thinking about others all of the time. This is a very nice gesture and I hope that several people will come out to welcome him back home.

I believe that all of our fighting men and women deserve a hero's welcome when they return home.

Have a great day!

John Starr

"THANK YOU" FROM JOHN STARR

Thanks to all of you that donated money to the Bowling for Kids Sake event recently. Because of your help, we were able to raise $9,326 at the Intermec event yesterday and Super Target North (Becky’s event) was able to raise close to $2,500 last week.

I mention the Super Target event because our family had 6 people participate this year between the two events, 4 with Target and 2 with Intermec. Although my Intermec team did not make it to the level of second highest team total because of the split donations between Target and Intermec, we did manage to raise an incredible amount of money for Big Brothers Big Sisters and surpassed our team goal of $400 by $320.

The Starr family total for this year was $720. This is in part because of your donations, so again I say thank you for all that you have done for the children in our community.

John (Starr)

Carron,

They have fixed the system by resetting something, so you and Tony are now officially present on the website.

Again, thanks so much for your more than generous donation. It never ceases to amaze me how caring some people can be. I have been bragging you up around work all day, and couldn’t be prouder to be listed amongst those that you consider a friend.

Where did you and Tony go bowling last time?

I would love to hit the lanes with you, but need to coordinate this pretty far in advance if possible. Our Scout Venture Crew does performances throughout February for Cub Scout groups, and they fall on Saturdays and Sundays, so my weekends are busier then normal right now. I still try to work in a couple of games on Sunday if time permits.

Anyway, I need to get back to the grind here at work, so I will talk to you later.

John (Starr)

(Hey, classmates, go to this site and check it out. John is doing wonderful things in the Big Brother/Big Sister program. Tony and I are going to hone his bowling skills by taking him out and kicking his butt! :-) Make a donation to a very worthy cause while you're at it...)

https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=212653&lis=1&kntae212653=C2327EAE8CEF419CAD122916177639A1&supId=161783965

Carron,

Please help me support Big Brothers Big Sisters by donating to Bowl For Kids' Sake. I'm raising money to help provide caring adult mentors for at-risk children. My personal fundraising goal is $200.

Please visit my website to donate online with a credit card (see link below), or contact me directly to be billed or to give a cash/check donation. This is my fourth year as a BFKS participant and I am the Company Coordinator for Intermec.

I feel strongly about the BBBS mission, and have taken an active role at Polk Elementary as a Math Mentor with one of the students for three years now. I know how much it means to my Buddy to have me visit him each week, and have seen many more students that could use this kind of personal relationship with a caring adult. With your help, many more of the Polk students will realize their dreams and receive the much needed one-on-one time with a BBBS volunteer such as myself.

Thank you so much for your generosity. Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support BBBS of Cedar Rapids.

John (Starr)

Carron,

The photos were taken at the Pow Wow, which we traditionally do at each gathering of this nature (Spring Fellowship, Sectional Conclave, National Conclave, etc…)

I belong to a group that is part of the Boy Scouts of America called the Order of the Arrow, which is the Honor Society of Scouting. Much of the OA is directly tied to Native American culture and heritage and each Chapter is asked to try and emulate the tribes in their local region. Our Chapter has adopted the Great Plains tribes for their main focus of study. I have chosen the Cumberland River basin tribes for my particular studies for various reasons, so my Regalia (Outfit) is based on that information that I have gathered.

The Pow Wow is a great way to show off your Regalia and just dance around with fellow Scouters without fear of being ridiculed for the lack of rhythm. I have to tell you that over the past three years, I have had the most glorious time with this whole Native American Studies part of Scouting and my children have been involved as well which makes it that much more enjoyable.

I have enclosed a picture of my son Josh (in red) and daughter Brooke (in pink) at one of our meetings practicing one of the dances that we perform for other groups.

Merry Christmas to you and yours,

John Starr

From John Starr

Thanks Carron.

I have moved within the company and am still attempting to get up to speed on my new responsibilities, so I haven’t had a great deal of sit-down free time to write anything of significance lately. I have also been very busy with Community Service related projects and issues, so my evenings have been very busy as well.

Someone once asked me “Do you ever just sit down and relax?” and I said yes, but not for very long.

It is unfortunate that all of this running around hasn’t trimmed my waist down much, but I probably would need to cut down on the production end a little to really make an impact and how much fun would that be.

We had a ribbon cutting ceremony the other day over at Cleveland Elementary for the walking trail that we converted from crushed lime to concrete, and I still can’t believe that we are finally done with it all. The project took us 2 summers to complete and hundreds of man hours of labor, which I headed up. The trail is approximately 1/3 of a mile long and 5 feet wide, and consists of approximately 94 yards of concrete. Needless to say, my summer exercise program was very physical and demanding, but was also a lot of fun working with all of the other volunteers. I have inserted an aerial view of the school property, and the red line indicates the present concrete version of the trail.

Tonight is the District dinner for Scouts and I will be receiving an honor at this event, which I am very proud of and my daughter Brooke will also be in attendance.

That is it for now as I have to take care of some business over the noon hour. So if anyone asks you if I ever sit down and relax you can say “yes, for a little while anyways”.

Take care,

John Starr

Carron,

Thanks for the classmate updates. It looks to me like everyone has really taken a liking to this thing and has gotten long lost friends back together or at least talking again. I have several friends from my Army days that I would love to see again, but fear that this may never occur. What a shame it is to loose friendships because of geographical reasons. The Internet has certainly helped, so I haven’t given up completely on seeing them again and your efforts have actually given me more hope as of late, so again keep up the good work.

John Starr

Carron,

Here is a photo from a couple of years ago. This is a rank advancement ceremony for my youngest boy, Jered, while he was still in the Boy Scouts. Also in the picture is my lovely wife, Rebecca, my daughter, Brooke, myself, and a good friend of mine.

Have a great time tonight!

John (Starr)

Carron,

Here is a photo of me presenting the Elementary School Principal an award certificate for a $1000 cash grant from my parent company a couple of years ago. More to follow when I get time.

John

(Picture of John Starr taken at the class reunion on July 22, 2006.)

Carron,

I’ve been good and as usual very busy. At the end of this month, I will be transferring into another group here at work so I will be busy trying to learn the new stuff for a while. I am currently an assistant football coach with the Metro Youth Football Association (4th,5th, and 6th Grade 50 to 80 pound kids) and our team is 4 and 0 with just two games left in the season. We are all very excited and I am having a wonderful time watching the players mature each week. I will be posting some pictures at the site soon, but haven’t compiled everything just yet to do that. I have some recent photos of my family and will hunt down a few photos of me when I served in the Army.
Well I have to get my haircut in preparation for a Patent Awards dinner tomorrow night, but will get back with you soon with some more interesting tidbits to share with the class.
Thanks again for everything.

John Starr
Associate Engineer
Intermec
tel:(319)369-3247
fax:(319)369-3577
john.starr@intermec.com