Friday, July 17, 2009

One of the best weeks of my life!

Welcome to the new Civitan Rocks Our World blog.

This blog is written by Mark Eisinger, the incoming President of Civitan International for the year beginning this October 1st, 2009 to September, 2010. I will chronicle the times, travels, stories, ideas for service projects, fellowship and knowledge. Come back often and I will alert you to updates if you follow me via www.twitter.com/civimark and/or www.facebook.com/civimark. That said, let's begin with "One of the best weeks of my life":

How do you jam as much into one week as possible? Well you asked the right person! This is part one of a three part report about the week of July 3rd through July 10th, 2009. The week was packed with the arrival of relatives, Civitan International Convention, Heart of the West Civitan District Convention and the Charter of Civitan Club On The Greens!

July 3rd

The week started with my mom and dad arriving on Friday, July 3rd. Richard and Ramona Eisinger traveled from my former hometown of Indianapolis, IN and we checked into the timeshare at the Wyndham Grand Vacations, it was a beautiful two bedroom "condo" with jacuzzi tubs, and overlooked the two pools, incredible view. My mom's brother Bob and his wife Bobbie also arrived that day.

4th of July

On the 4th of July, my wife Cassi and I were able to check into our suite on the 29th floor of the Las Vegas Hilton... it was actually 3 rooms all merged into one huge suite with three separate balconies, a western style suite that our daughter called the "saloon". The Las Vegas Hilton comped the room for us since the Civitan International Convention was going to be held there from July 6-8th. My cousins Lori Foster and Kathy and Keith Cuvelier arrived and they checked into another timeshare two-bedroom "condo" at Wyndham, only a few doors down from mom and dad's "condo".

The Staff and Board Members arrived for the beginning of the pre-convention activities, the Civitan International Board began our meeting at 3:00pm.

Cassi and I heard that there were going to be fireworks at the Las Vegas Hilton that night, so around 9:00pm, my relatives all joined us in the suite. We went out on the large balcony. The fireworks began at the golf course across the street. We were surprised how close they were! Just as the golf course fireworks ended, all of the sudden, the Las Vegas Hilton fireworks began, they were launched from the parking garage 26 floors beneath us. When the fireworks exploded, it was right near our balcony, we felt like we could reach out and touch the beautiful colors!

July 5th

The International board finished our meeting in the morning. (Photo right: Glen and Patsy Perkel and Virginia Campbell and John McAffee in Host District Hospitality Room) All of my Governors-Elect arrived for our Governor/Governors-Elect update. It was a great reunion of an awesome team! After a wonderful President's Award Dinner, Cassi and I joined over 130 putters to participate in the Putt-N-Chip fundraiser at Angel Park Golf Club's executive putting course. The putters were impressed with the tough "real green" course with the water falls and sand traps.

July 6th

Although I wasn't able to golf this year for the Civitan International Golf Benefit, Danny and I switched places so I was able to be there for the awards presentation and say a few words thanking the golfers for raising over $285,000 this year!

What's Next? The next post (part two of three) will bring you the opening ceremonies and the rest of the Civitan International Convention experience. Come back and read more soon!