The Central Florida Mountaineer Messenger
Game Watch Central
Football Season Is Almost Here! Our new game watch partner is Friendly Confines – 7025 CR 46-A, Lake Mary, located just off of I-4, Exit 101-A on State Road 46-A, just behind the Marriott. We are very excited that they have committed space for our game watch group. Check them out online to get a head start on their menu and opportunity to download their android or apple app for discounts and to join their loyalty club. Their website is at myfriendlyconfines.com; also available through our website by clicking on their icon.
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MEET OUR OFFICERS
President: Joe Abel
Vice President: Don Nestor
Secretary: Charla Goff
Treasurer: Stacey Chipman
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We always welcome new leadership candidates and volunteers to assist with our operations at game watches and other events and activities.
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You can now find more info and stay in touch by reaching out to us on our newly refreshed website at wvucfl.com and find us on Facebook at WVU-Central Florida. A huge thank you to Donny Morehouse for building and maintaining our new website!
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President’s Message
Welcome to the Central Florida WVU Alumni & Friends Fall 2016 Mountaineer Messenger. It has been a busy past few months as we have been preparing for the fall game watch season. Doc’s and our friends in Orlando are undergoing a major renovation so we have been looking for a new home. Finding a new place to meet has not been a cakewalk. We spent time looking at our attendance over the past several years, our membership roster, and most importantly a place that will welcome our crazy Mountaineer Fanatics. We all know that we are not typical fans and we need a place that can appreciate that and a group that at times reaches 100! And even more so, we will now be reaching out to a broader area of Central Fl to encompass south into Osceola County, all of Orange and Seminole Counties, north into Volusia County, west into Lake and Polk Counties, and east into parts of Brevard County. With all of that said, our new home is Friendly Confines in Lake Mary.
Along with finding a new home for the fall, I was invited to attend a WVU Alumni Leadership Institute in Morgantown in May and what a great opportunity that turned out to be. There are some really great things happening with our Alumni Association. This fall we will be unveiling a new logo and look for both us and the main alumni association with the goal of consistency in both look and messaging. The idea—One WVU! While at the gathering, we discussed working toward assistance and consistency among the over 100 chapters across the United States. There are over 390,000 interested mountaineers and friends across the country in the alumni database and the goal is to actively engage them and others. Just in our Central Florida area, we have nearly 1,000 alumni and friends. And now, we have a means to reach them all through a shared email system with the Alumni Association. Hopefully you have received a welcome email from me in your
inbox in the past few weeks. If not, let us know and we’ll get you added to our list.
Other great activities we have been working on over the past few months are the Marilu Adams Memorial Student-Athlete Scholarship and developing a new Central Florida non-athlete, academic scholarship. More information about those two funds can be found below. Also, included in this addition of the Messenger is info on our updated website and Facebook contact.
One last item is, it is our goal this year to explore non-athletic type activities and events. We will be reaching out to our group for ideas and volunteers to lead these efforts for those that may not be as interested in our WVU athletics.
In closing, thank you for being part of our Central Florida group and we look forward to seeing you in the coming weeks and months.
Go Mountaineers,
Joe Abel, President
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Giving back through our Central Florida Student Scholarships…
During our game watches we hold 50/50 drawings for cash and prizes with the net proceeds from the raffles going directly into the scholarship funds. Also, funds left over from our membership fees collected, after expenses; go directly into the scholarship funds. Our Central Florida WVU Alumni & Friends have been very fortunate to fully fund our Marilu Adams Student-Athlete Scholarship and fund local Florida athletes for the past several years. Our most recent recipient was Karl Joseph of right here in Central Florida. To fully fund the scholarship, our chapter agree to grow the fund to an endowed amount of $50,000I am very glad to say that the fund currently has over $63,000 and we are updating/amending our Agreement to grow the fund to an endowed amount of $75,000. You can find out more about the fund and how to donate at our website.
Our newest opportunity is starting a new fund that is focused on those Central Florida Students that are not attending WVU for athletics but rather academics. We have named it the Central Florida WVU Student-Academic Scholarship Fund. This scholarship will begin funding opportunities once the fund reaches an initial level of $5,000 and will be endowed at $25,000. You can also
find out more about this fund and how to donate on our website
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Recent West Virginia Flooding…
As I am sure everyone is well aware, many of our friends and families in West Virginia endured tragic flooding throughout parts of the State earlier this summer. One of our prominent WVU Alumni 1965 graduate, Ken Kendrick, Jr. from Princeton and co-owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks challenged fellow West Virginians to assist with donations with a promise to match dollar for dollar donations up to $500,000. I am very proud to share that your Central Florida Chapter contributed $2,000 to the challenge and provided assistance to the WVU Extension Services flood relief efforts. Thank you to our fellow alumni and friends for your support.
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Suggestion Box
We want to hear from you….any ideas for our chapter to get involved in or plan other events or activities other than football game watches. We would like to see our members involved in more activities together. Please bring any suggestions to one of our officers.
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End of Season Raffle Prizes…
In addition to the game watch 50/50 drawings for prizes and money we sell raffle tickets for a few higher value items to give away at the last game of the season. Tickets for this year raffle items are only $2.00 each or 3 for $5.00. Tickets for the end of season raffle will be sold at all of the game watches during the season. This year’s prizes are…
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A hand-crafted coal mountaineer statue
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A signed Tavon Austin WVU Jersey w/ certificate of authenticity
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A hand-crafted WVU Mountaineer Lazy Susan
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