News:

Val Riess ready for running!

A big thanks goes out to David Wilde (poet and biographer from the
University of New Mexico) and his Hilltop volunteer group who cleaned
up Val Riess Park in December. Prior to this park and path cleaning,
running the full loop proved difficult, to say the least. Part of
the path contained some debris, but people could still run without
incident on it. Former CTC member Doug Arena would only run half of
the path for his workouts. The path by the woods and Scout house was
an adventure to say the least. CTC could have staged an adventure
race out there! I had to jump over pieces of broken dreams (house
pieces, clothing, tires, etc…) as well as fallen trees, and I even
had to clear a huge hole where pavement/path once existed. The path
had become even narrower since our last race out at the park. Now
that has changed, thanks to Hilltop. I just happed to run into this
group on a nice (I mean warm) winter day.

I have a four mile course which goes through part of the park. I
entered the park from Karen Drive (the fence is gone) and was
surprised to see lots of young adults cleaning up the park. I ran
through to one of the far ends of the park to reach Florida Ave. I
decided I would stop to talk to members of this group on my way
back. I had a long chat with David Wilde and his group. They
decided to give up their time between semesters and lend a helping
hand in the New Orleans area. I ran the path a week after their
wonderful job was completed and was amazed at how wide the path is
again. The only thing that they could not fix was the large hole.
Still, with a clean path, one has only to run around it. It is very
likely that we will be able to move our Bastille Day Race and our
Buster Race back to Val Riess this year.

Sad news to report

On January 1st member Earl Allebone passed away. Many of you may
remember seeing and talking to Earl at Buster's annual race ( I am
told that this race became one of his favorite CTC events). Earl
also attended some of the Return to St. Bernard Races before he
became very ill. He will be missed not only by CTC members but by
many NOTC members. He was an active member of NOTC for years. Many
thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.


A bit of good news!

Hector Perez and family recently spent their first night back in
their home in Meraux. Many of you already know the joy of that first
night back in a real home whether it is in St. Bernard or elsewhere.

If there is enough interest, our newsletter will contain a feature on
a select member or two so that our members can be acquainted (again)
with other members. If you are interested in sharing your story
(where are you now, what are you doing, etc…), please send me some
info at jlgioia88@....

Jennifer Gioia

President's Report
Yes, we're up and running. We're just not doing much. We continued
the streak of our Annual Race , BNO, and Bastille and a Christmas
party. We missed only the September 2005 Pelicanman. (I won because
no one else showed up.) Spring and Fall of 2006 went well, and the
next Pelicanman will be on April 1, 2007. Flyers are out. As to the
future, we are back to how it was in 1982. Like then, we can do as
much as you, the membership, will do. All we really need to do more,
is get volunteers. In fact, I need a volunteer coordinator. Until
then, if you would like to work the April 1st Pelicanman, call me at
504 912 2675. Depending on how much help we get, we hope to have a
2007 Grand Prix, a Spring and Fall Pelicanman, BNO, Bastille Day, our
Annual Race, and any of the administered races we can get in St.
Bernard Parish.
Hector is still our key guy. He's a bit busy with work and his new
again house. Jennifer has taken over the newsletter , which fills a
great need. She is still working multiple jobs, and her time is
limited. Perhaps her newly torn ACL will slow her down enough to do
even more for CTC. Rosemary, who was one of the first back in her
home in Chalmette, is perhaps retiring soon. Hopefully, we can tap
into her time even more. JoAnn Boos is a gone pecan, relocated to
Amite, and she took Don. Buster is still webbing, but on borrowed
equipment and not in his Chalmette house. Janel has taken over the T-
shirt and some other duties. She is busy with a new job and multiple
house repairs. Rock has been doing race results. We plan more of the
same for him. Craig Taffaro has helped me out a lot while attending
to his councilman duties. Don Brinkman is always willing to help, but
he lives in a foreign parish. Henry shows up from time to time but is
living out of state. My job is still in hurricane mode, which calls
for long and irregular hours. I am out of touch with my work cell
phone only when I shower. Repairing my house takes the last big chunk
of my time. If you would like to discuss any of this with me, I will
be available all day Sunday, February 25 on the Mardi Gras Marathon
course. And I do mean all day. I ate well during storm recovery. I
will delegate my cell phone.
As to membership, those of you who have paid are members now and your
year will start whenever we get someone to handle membership. Between
then and when you paid is lagniappe. What I would like to do is
consider all of us new members and give the first time membership
club T-shirt like we started in 1982. We are a bit tight on funds,
but I can't think of a better thing to do with our assets than to
give something to our members. Thanks go out to NOTC for their help
after the storm. Without their generosity, we couldn't do nearly as
much for our members and the running community.
I have much more info, but the cell phone just reported that my
presence is required in the nether land of Plaquemine Parish. So it
goes……………back to Jennifer.

Phil Gioia