President’s Message
Guten Tag and Frohes Neues Jahr (Happy New Year)
Starting out I would like to give you an update on our Trip to Milwaukee for the Cubs vs Brewers game. I’m sure by now you have heard that our trip was unsuccessful. The Cubs blew it and we had to relinquish the trophy back to the Milwaukee GAPA. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the Cubs are able to do better in 2023 and we are able to bring our trophy back where it belongs. Mark your calendars: the 2023 Cubs vs Brewers outing will be October 1, 2023.
As we make plans for the New Year, we started out by distributing the scholarship checks at the January meeting. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners, listed at the bottom of this page.
Many thanks go out to Golfmeister Joe Kirchens and Jeff Schuck for another successful golf outing! Both have agreed to oversee the 2023 event, set for Monday, June 12. With your help securing hole sponsors, picking up door prizes and signing up a foursome or two, we can make the 2023 golf outing as big, if not bigger, than 2022.
Our annual picnic was also a huge success, thanks to Picnicmeister John Meindl. With John overseeing the event and Mother Nature’s cooperation, we had an excellent turnout. John informed the officers and Board of Directors that he has secured the 2023 permit for July 14, so mark your calendars.
We had our annual joint Oktober meeting with the Emerald Society at DANK, and this year we were also joined with the Polish American Police Association. We had 120 people show up! Lots of good German food and beer was served. We welcomed several political candidates to the meeting including governor candidate Darren Bailey. All of them expressed their support for Law Enforcement officers. A great time was had by all!
Our annual Oktoberfest was held at Alpine Banquets on October 21st. The turnout was lower than usual but those that attended had (See Message Page 8) a nice evening as we celebrated our German heritage with plenty of gemutlicheit! A few of our Milwaukee GAPA members made the trip down to Chicago and joined us. Oktoberfest 2023 will be November 10, when we will return to the Elmcrest in Elmwood Park. Let’s make this year’s Oktoberfest the best ever by getting your family and friends to join us for a great evening of gemutlicheit und fruendshaft!
In 2022 we had some illnesses that I mentioned in the last newsletter. I’m pleased to inform you that Loralei Haas, Ming Schuck, and Jerry Glunz are doing well and are on the road to a great recovery. However I recently learned that Richard Adjorn was hospitalized for five weeks and Milwaukee GAPA President, Peter Graber was also hospitalized. Both are out of the hospital and are at home recovering with their loved ones.