DUE TO THE SCHEDULING OF THIS YEARS

Haunted House, Ring 200 will NOT meet at its usual location this month. Instead, the meeting will be held at the Minnie B. Veal Community Center, home of the annual Halloween Haunted House. This will give everyone an opportunity to help set up the HH in time for the Friday and Saturday event. 

As you know the annual HH has become a highly anticipated event by the citizens of Edison as well as Ring 200. Our involvement each year has grown to the point that it has become a major source of revenue for Ra really fun event. Of course, it does require a lot of work by our members and this year everyone of our members that provides at least one solid day of work on the HH project, will be entitled to a FREE ticket to the October 30 performance of John Bundy and Morgan’s Halloween SPOOKTACULAR Magic Show at the St. George Theater on Staten Island. 

A big THANK YOU is to John and Morgan for their very generous gesture of lending us some of their props from previous shows to help us make this year’s HH the best ever.

IMPORTANT NOTE

You do not have to wait until Tuesday night to begin helping set up the HH. On Monday, October 19, Eric will be at the MBV Community Center from about 9 in the morning, along with other helpers. So, if you want to get a head start so that we can get this done in good time, come out on Monday. Whenever you do join us to help out, please make sure you check in with Eric, or Raymond, or Norman, or Gene so that you get full credit for your efforts towards getting your free ticket to the Spooktacular show.


AFTER SCHOOL MAGIC CLASSES

On October 5th, the Edison Rec after school Fun Clubs began again. Ring 200, as you know, is heavily involved in teaching magic classes to young children from K through fifth grade as part of their program. We ask, nay, we encourage, anyone who has their afternoons free on Mondays and/or Wednsdays to consider helping teach these classes. We are now  into our sixth year  doing this and it has been a great outreach to the community as well as a rewarding effort on a personal level for all involved. Please contact Gene Soucek, Norman Rosen, Eric Appel, or Raymond Nieves if you would like to participate.

MAGIC CASTLE/MEXICAN RIVIERA REPORT

Okay, so I do not have anything to report from either the Magic Castle or the Mexican Riviera other than to say that my wife and I were there from September 24 through October 7.  We were on a long anticipated vacation. We stayed at the Magic Castle Hotel (bet you didn’t know there was one) for three days, spending nights at the Castle next door, enjoying lots of Magic. Then we went on a huge Royal Caribbean Ship for a seven day cruise to the Mexican Riviera which included visits to, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and  Puerto Vallarta.

Then it was back to the Magic Castle Hotel and more Magic for another three days. I am including a few photos we took on our trip. They are all from the cruise because, unfortunately, photography within the Magic Castle is not allowed. 

I have included a few photos of the ship itself because it is hard to believe how big it is. The ship is three times the size of the first cruise ship we went on back in 1993. And we thought that was huge. This ship, the Mariner of the Seas had a gigantic theater, an ice rink, a promenade that ran the length of the ship and looked like a quaint village street with shops and outdoor cafes, a miniature golf course, a basketball/volley ball court, a rock climbing wall, three pools and a bunch of hot water tubs, a three tiered main restaurant and three or four special restaurants, I don’t even know how many bars, and a whole lot  of other stuff. If you have never been on a cruise, I heartily recommend that you do so. I hope you enjoy the photos. 

YOUNG MAGICIANS OF RING 200

I have recently received requests from a number of the members of our youth group, (I really dislike that name, so, until someone can come up with a name that fits better, I will refer to it from now on as: The Young Magicians of Ring 200).

It seems that the YMR200 members would like to begin having their own meetings. They have suggested a few ideas in this regard, some of which had actually been in our plans when we first started this group. I promised that the board would attempt to initiate this suggestion by no later than January 2010.

Two ideas were immediately brought to my attention. First, the YMR200 group could start their meetings one half hour earlier (at 6:30 pm) then the regularly scheduled Ring 200 meetings. They could hold court in the rear of our meeting room. Their meetings could be scheduled to end at a much earlier time so that they would not interfere with school. They could set up a slate of officers that corresponded to the regular Ring 200 officials, and they could run their meetings independent of, but still following the rules, etc. of Ring 200.  At the conclusion of their meetings they would be free to go home or stay and join the adult group to finish out the night.

If this was not feasible for what ever reason, a second suggestion was that they hold their own meetings at a member’s house, with parental permission and supervision, of course. One member tentatively offered their home for this possibility. I would suggest the second option be tried only if the first option did not work out to everyone’s liking.
 
Second, it was suggested to me by more than one member that we bring back the assigned projects program initiated by Eric and Raymond. They like having a bit of homework having to do with researching Magic, Magicians and the related arts.

I would like to have your comments on this issue. Please send me an email with your thoughts, ideas, suggestions. Send them to Gene Soucek at ersoucek@optonline.net. Thank you, Ed.