January 2004

The 2004 Lakeview Polar Bear Club's 3rd Annual Celebration of Shrinkage hit a little snag from Mother Nature.  For those of you who don't know, Lake Michigan was for all basic purposes, FROZEN.  But, cold weather didn't keep us down.  Due to creative thinking on the part of some of the polar bears, we came up with a competition that I believe raised the level of stupidity of our event another notch.  Our competition was to see who could get sprayed down with a hose for the longest time.  I know, I know, this might sound easy, but believe me, this was every bit as painful as jumping in the lake.  I want to congratulate Ryan "Squirrel" Ratermann on winning the competition with a time of 5 minutes and 25 seconds.  Just to show what a man he is, Ryan went more than twice as long as anyone else.  What a show off!    

In total, we raised over $5,000 for the Silivestru family.  I spoke with Viorel Silivestru, and he spoke of how grateful the family is for everyone's donations.  I would also like to thank everyone who donated and came out and supported the 2004 Celebration of Shrinkage.

It saddens me to say that on January 30, 2004, Lili Silivestru passed away after a courageous battle against cancer.  Lili is survived by her husband, Viorel, and children Tiberius, Roxana, and Andra.

I want to thank everyone who was involved with this year's event and I want to thank everyone for your kindness and considerations.  A couple people deserve special mention:  Beth Sevening for all of her work at the parties, Rose Marchal for all of her donations and hard work helping me put the event together, and Julie Greene who did all of the behind the scenes work, including getting all of the bathrobes and hats embroidered.  The three of you are all saints.

Next year's event is going to be bigger and better, so I hope to see all of you down at the beach for the 4th Annual: Celebration of Shrinkage.