SnowBird NEWS
SnowBird NEWS
Snowbird Food Drive Feb. 11-12
Folks on Spokes a bicycle riding group, Iowa Snowbird Club, and other area Snowbirds are holding a food drive Feb. 11-12 from 8 a.m.-noon to benefit the Food Pantry at the Christian Service Center. The event is at the Gulf State Park Campground and the $2 park entrance fee will be waived when bringing a food donation to the Nature Center Pavilion. Items may be placed in the grocery carts located near the camp store or someone will take donations from your car. All nonperishable goods are welcome. Suggestions: Ramen noodles, crackers, cereal, canned soup, oatmeal and grits (individual packets), jelly, peanut butter, mac and cheese, clothes detergent (small packages) disposable diapers, baby wipes, toilet paper, paper towels. Last year’s effort garnered about 2,000 pounds of food donations and $455. The CSC provides food and emergency aid to families in need on Pleasure Island.
Snowbird Coffee Tuesdays
By Roger Pashby
The local Snowbird Coffee will be meeting again! Yes, the Snowbird Coffee held at the United Methodist Church of Gulf Shores will be holding four meetings this season at the United Methodist Church Annex, behind Zaxbys, on Gulf Shores Blvd. Meeting time will be 09:00 on Tuesday mornings. February 8, 15, 22, and 29th will be our meeting dates. This will be an informal series of meetings, comprised of singing, fellowship, information and entertainment. Coffee and donuts will be offered, with donations accepted. Bring your ideas and let’s plan on what we can do in 2023. Any questions, call Roger Pashby @ 269-838-6073, or email at ROGER_PASHBY@YAHOO.COM.
Indiana
By Becky Chatham-Heidenreich
This Snow Bird Season has been very trying. We have had to change some of our breakfast procedures, but think most people have enjoyed their time this year. The March 10 breakfast has been canceled. We will only have four meetings each year from now on. We have two more breakfasts scheduled for this year-Feb. 10 at Glen Lakes Golf Club House (Turn right from HW 59 to Rd 20. Stay on 20 for 21/2 mi. past the express highway and turn right into Glen Lakes.)
If attending the Feb.10 meeting, reservations must be prepaid by Feb. 3. Doors will open at 8 and breakfast will be served at 8:30. You may mail $10 (in cash) for each meal to Linda Tucker, 5098 Bay Dr., Orange Beach, AL36561 (for faster service take the mail to the Orange Beach post office and request that it stay on the island). The Feb. 24 meeting will be held at Magnolia Event Center, Sign up at the Feb. 10 meeting or by mailing Linda the cash by Feb. 17. Doors will open at 7:30. Breakfast at 8:30. The restaurants will be preparing food for only the number of attendees registered. Any questions,please call Linda (251)747-5767. If you have not paid your dues for 2022 you will not be receiving a roster. If you have questions please call (260)760-5130.
Iowa
By Amos Glanz
The Iowa Snowbird Club invites its members and their guests to attend its next breakfast meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 8:30am at the Perdido Beach Resort, 27200 East Perdido Beach Blvd, Orange Beach. Our featured speaker at this meeting will be a representative from the Baldwin County Heritage Museum on the topic “History of Baldwin County”. The breakfast cost will be $15. Reservations are required at all breakfast meetings and can be made on the website, Iowa-Alabamagulfcoastsnowbirds.org (preferred), or, by texting/calling Chris or Steve Hedlund at 319-430-4597. Members are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to each club event to be donated to the Christian Service Center food pantry. The Club’s last Cocktail Party will be held on Fri., Feb. 25 at the Caribe, 28103 Perdido Beach Blvd., Bldg D, Orange Beach, 5-7pm. NO RSVP required. Bring a dish to share and your own beverages. Many door prizes will be distributed. Our last breakfast will be informal and will be held on Wed., Mar. 9 at OSO Early, 27370 Canal Road, Orange Beach. As always, use the reservation procedures. Club members are encouraged to check the club’s website regularly for updates. There are no dues to join our club.
Snowbird Trivia Night Feb. 12
By Larry Ramirez
Saturday, Feb. 12 is the date for one of the most exciting winter events on the Gulf Coast; Snowbird Trivia Night. Doors open at 5 p.m. Play beins at 6 p.m. You can bring food, drink, table décor and $5 per person cash to play heads and tails during the break. Award certificates will be given for the top three Best Table Theme. The medallions were designed and manufactured in the library’s maker space. Bring food, drink, table décor and $5 per person to play heads and tails during the break. The Friends of the Orange Beach Library are going to great lengths to make this event as safe as possible for participants and workers. The $160 table cost includes 40 door-prize tickets. Mulligans must be purchased at time of registration. More info: 405-630-7831.
Missouri
By Mark Rethemeyer
We know that this year has been a challenge for many of the snowbird clubs, and some are not having any activities at all. Nothing worse than making the trip to Gulf Shores and no one to connect with. Well, we can solve that problem! The activities of the Missouri Snowbird Club of Alabama are open regardless of where you are from. If you are looking to get involved and make some new friends while you are snowbirding then take this as your personal invitation, and we hope to see you soon! Join us for breakfast every Wednesday at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach. Arrive around 8:30 and we have a great buffet breakfast at 9:00 for $10 per person (plus tax and tip). At breakfast you’ll have an opportunity to sign up for golf and all our other activities. We play golf every Wednesday afternoon at 1 (weather permitting of course) and we would love to have you join us. You can sign up at breakfast. Join us for Happy Hour on Mondays at 4:00 at Cobalt’s, the Restaurant just over the Perdido Bay Bridge (“next to” the Caribe Resort). We’ll be in the Banquet Room. Enjoy Happy Hour food and drink specials, and a great opportunity to meet other friendly people. Info: mer2@charter.net or mosnowbirds.org or facebook.
2023 Snowbird Play Auditions
By Becky Chatham-Heidenreich
Auditions for the 2023 production of “Knock ‘Em Dead” are being held at the South Baldwin Community Theatre, 2022 W. 2nd St. Gulf Shores on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022 at 6 pm. There are 5 male roles and 3 female roles. You do not have to be a professional or have experience in theater, but you will have a great deal of fun working and learning with other actors and all the backstage people. To acquire a copy of the script, contact Robert Lane at robert@northwesttravel.net or by calling (765)242-7423. This unique comedy/murder mystery has six different endings. All hell breaks loose and the laughs fly when 5 outrageous contestants show up at Vinnie’s Belly Laugh Club for the final talent competition. A ventriloquist with moving lips, a foul mouthed stand up comedian, a baton twirling bimbo, the flamboyant owner of a lip synching poodle, a chanteuse with a questionable accent, and a a hypnotist with a twitch, all fight to win the grand prize. When Vinnie turns up dead, they are all suspects and the audience has the time of its life grilling them and fingering the murderer.
llinois
By Dave DeBlauw
The Illinois Snowbird Club met for breakfast on Jan 28 at the Glen Lakes Clubhouse that was enjoyed by 54 members. Trivia night is Feb 12 at the Orange Beach Event Center at 5 p.m. The next breakfast will be held on Feb 11 at the Glen Lakes Clubhouse at 8:30. Call Bobbie Butler at 251-980-5652 if you plan to attend. A breakfast will be held at the same time and location on Feb 22.
Sweet Harmony Chorus
By Pamula Rustan
Woman Singers Come Join Us! Sweet Harmony Chorus is a group of women snowbirds and local residents who like to sing woman’s acapella music in the barbershop-close harmony style. Join us on Monday 3 at 2 pm. Time: 2 – 4pm every Monday thru Mar. 14 at Choir Room at Gulf Shores United Methodist Church, 1900 Gulf Shores Parkway. All ranges of talent are welcome. We have training tapes for rapid learning. Any woman who would enjoy singing is welcome to join us. We require singers to be fully vaccinated, and we require masks and social distancing. For info, call Pamula Rustan, director at 701-260-0670 or email viewpt01@ gmail.com. Also visit sweetharmonychorus.org.
New York
By Frank Panczyszyn
The New York Snowbirds will gather again at Ginny Lane on Feb. 10 and 24, and March 10, gathering and registering at 11 a.m., followed by lunch. Reservations are required by email to nysnowbirds@gmail.com.
Cribbage Fridays at Post 44
By Barbara Beamish
Beginning Friday, Jan. 14, Cribbage players will be gathering to play Cribbage every Friday. Sign up starts at 12:30 p.m. and play begins at 1 p.m. at the Gulf Shores American Legion, Post 44, 6781 AL-59. Cost is $5. For additional information contact Barbara Beamish at 989-464-8605. All Cribbage players are welcome!
Snowbird Euchre
Snowbird Euchre: Wednesday play starts at 6 p.m. Gulf Shores American Legion Post 44. Thursday play starts at 1 p.m. Gulf Shores American Legion Post 44.
Mt. Dulcimer Players
Mt Dulcimer Players meet until the beginning of March, Mon 10-11:30 a.m., Wed 2-3:30 p.m., St Andrew by the Sea, 17263 Fort Morgan Road, Gulf Shores. Questions? Michelle 317-446-0500.
G.S. Men’s Snowbird Coffee Club
By Larry Cole
The Gulf Shores Men’s Snowbird Coffee Club will have their first meeting of the 2022 season on Monday, Jan. 3 at 8 a.m. All meetings are at Ginny Lane Bar and Grill at the Wharf in Orange Beach every Monday morning from 7:30 -8:30 a.m. Besides raising money for local charities, the club has golf outings, sponsors casino trips and conducts breakfast meetings for members and spouses. The club also throws horseshoes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at noon at Meyer Park in Gulf Shores.
Dakotas Snowbird Club
By Joyce Anderson
Dakotas Snowbird Club is scheduled to meet Feb. 22, and March 8, at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast with a 9 a.m. program at Luna’s Magnolia Hall in Orange Beach. The club may also plan several social activities to be determined at a later date. For more information please contact Joyce Anderson at 605-351-0274 and leave a message for a return call.
Snowbird Blood Drive Feb. 14
By David Angle
A snowbird blood drive, sponsored by the Michigan Snowbird Club, will be Monday, Feb. 14 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Gulf Shores Adult Activity Center, located at 260 Clubhouse Drive. Streamline your donation experience and save up to 15 minutes by visiting redcross.org / rapid pass to complete your pre-donation reading and health history questions on the day of your appointment. For more info, contact David Angle at 248-797-9852.
Gulf Shores Senior Softball
By John McCabe
For the past 20 years local seniors have welcomed snowbirds to join us on our manicured diamonds in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach. Most snowbird softball players participate in leagues in their hometowns and look forward to continue play here. We have 22 local players, but we welcome and encourage others to join us. Our players are all over 50 years old. We welcome females as well. We generally meet Mondays and Fridays in the morning at either the Gulf Shores Sportsplex or Orange Beach Sportsplex. The location depends upon field availability. Info: 251-981-9787.
Wisconsin Synod Lutherans
By Jeff Quint
Gulf Shores area WELS/ELS members
will have local church services with Holy Communion on Feb. 13 and 27 at St Jude by the Sea Lutheran Church, 312 E. 16th Ave., Gulf Shores. Services will start at 4 p.m. with Bible class to follow. For more info contact: Jim Diehm, 231-598-0383 or jkdiehm@gmail.com.
Minnesota
By Nancy Poferl
The Minnesota Snowbird Club is hosting a weekly breakfast at GT’s On The Bay located on 26189 Canal Road, Orange Beach Jan. 11-March 8 at 8 a.m. Registration is required one week prior to the event. Click on the Breakfast Sign-up tab on our homepage at mnal.org. There is a minimum and maximum requirement. Best value breakfast in town. New and returning snowbirds from Minnesota can keep abreast of 2022 activities at mnal.org or facebook.com search @mnalclub.
Snowbird Church Service
Snow Bird Church service to be every Sunday (January-March) at 9 a.m. at the Island Retreat RV park clubhouse on Ft. Morgan Road. Kent Gerber, chaplain 336-529-2372 for more information.
Snowbird Play
Although it is usually one of the winter’s hottest tickets, as of the Mullet Wrapper deadline tickets were still available for the South Baldwin Community Theatre’s snowbird production, A Bad Year for Tomatoes, scheduled Feb. 9-13 and 16-20. Tickets are available at ci.ovationtix.com or SBCT.biz.
In A Bad Year for Tomatoes, the famous Myra Marlowe, fed up with the pressures and demands of her acting career, leases a house in the tiny New England hamlet of Beaver Haven and settles down to write her autobiography. Other upcoming SBCT productions include The Fourth Annual Radio Theatre Festival on Feb. 25-27; Local playright Laura S. Pfizenmayer’s Cancer is a Pain in My Ass on March 5-6 and The Enchanted Bookshop, a Young Artist production scheduled April 1-3 and 8-10.
Wisconsin Golf Fun Day Feb. 21
By Nancy Durgin
The Wisconsin Sno-bird Club has planned a Golf Fun Day for Monday, February 21, at GlenLakes Golf Club. All snowbird club golfers are invited to participate. You will enjoy lunch, a raffle and play 9 holes of golf. Lunch begins at 11 am for $15 and golfing starts at 1 pm for $16+tax to walk and $26+tax for a golf cart. Register by e-mail with Mike Gordee at mwgordee@ gmail.com.
Welcome Wednesdays at Flora-Bama
Welcome Wednesdays potluck lunches are back at the Flora-Bama thru February. The weekly lunch party features live music, followed by drawings for goods, services and merchandise compliments of the Flora-Bama and local businesses. Music begins at 11 a.m. The noon buffet is $3 per person or free for those bringing a covered dish or dessert The ‘Bama is located at the Florida-Alabama state line.
Michigan Snowbird Golf
By Dave Ferguson
The Michigan Club will not be meeting. Wednesday until March 9th. Our golf schedule can be found at michiganclubalabama.com. This year we are again welcoming all snowbirds from all the snowbird clubs to join our golf outings. To sign up, go to our website, click on the golf icon and our schedule will appear. Pick the course that you want to play and call the coordinator for that course and give them your name and phone number and you will be signed up. Our next four of golf outings and contacts are as follows: 02/14/22 at Quail Creek, Dave Eppley 810-334-5947; 2/16/22 at Kiva Dunes, Dave Holzworth 231-463-7181; 2/21/22 at Craft Farms (Cotton Creek Course), Bob Imhoff 616-897-5290; and 2/23/22 at Solders Creek, Dave Holzworth 231-463-7181. We will also have Ladies golf every Tuesday, weather permitting, at Gulf Links Golf Center on 59. We will meet at 9:30 AM, with Tee times at 10. Info: Sue Beach at spbeach260@ charter.net or 231-429-0952.
Grand Point Condo Craft Show
The Ladies of Grand Pointe Condominium invite you to come to their craft show on Feb. 24 from 9-2. Grand Pointe is located at 27284 Gulf Road – Orange Beach (across from San Roc Cay). Items for sale will be Handcrafted jewelry, beaded silverware, magnets, original greeting cards, quilled decorated cards and painted birdhouses. Call Judie McCoy at (765)860-8520 for directions or questions.
Iowa author at Book Exchange Feb. 19
The Foley Book Exchange will host a Feb. 19 meet-the-author event for a snowbird’s book about her mother from 12 to 3 p.m. Call author Mary McSwain Steele at 712-260-5614 or email marysteele444@ gmail.com for more info. All proceeds from the book will be donated to cancer cure related non-profits. It has 5-stars based on 74 ratings including excellent reviews from Midwest Book Review and The DesMoines Register.
Steele’s letters to her mom penned over the last several years along with hospice notes; letters and photos from her mother’s trips; and memories of growing up in the 1950s and ‘60s in rural Wisconsin evolved into a book, Betty: A Memoir published last fall through Amazon. All profits from sales of the book are being used to fund nursing scholarships. Her mother was a complicated but remarkable woman, Steele says. She raised three children by herself and when they went off to college, she followed her dream of traveling the world. She took a nursing position in Saudi Arabia and every year she had a month off to travel.
The Northwest Iowa woman who spends winters in Gulf Shores had always enjoyed writing. She was a newspaper reporter for several years but changed careers to spend more time with her family. It wasn’t until her mother, Betty McSwain, was given a terminal diagnosis in 2009 that she started writing again.
“We didn’t know it at the time of her diagnosis, but she had just 32 days left with us,” said Steele.
“My sister Susan and I spent every one of those days with her, caring for her with the help of hospice staff.”
Steele says she will never forget those 32 days. “I thought it would be terrible seeing her get weaker and then dying,” she said. “And there were times Susan and I wondered how we’d get through it. But, to our surprise, it was a beautiful time as well. We laughed, we cried, we reminisced about the past and talked about the future, and we grew closer than the three of us had ever been.”
Hospice would call McSwain’s death “a good death” – she died at home with her closest family around her, with her pain controlled, at the age of 84. Even so, Steele began to realize she wasn’t coping well with her grief. She knew she needed a strategy to get through the sadness and anxiety that often comes with grieving. A former award-winning journalist, she turned to writing as a tool to help her heal.
“I thought I would ‘get over it’ in a few months, or maybe a year. But a year turned into two and then three years, and I still wasn’t feeling ‘normal,’ Steele remembers. “So I started writing letters to Mom after she died,” she says. “Writing was therapy for me. In time, with the help of loving, caring friends and family, I was able to finally tell my mom in my last letter – which I wrote from Gulf Shores – that I was okay.”