President’s
Message
August
2010
Dear Club Members and
Hockey Fans:
As everyone knows, Howard Baldwin is back in Connecticut and attempting
to revitalize the hockey scene by promoting many events that will both
be nostalgic and at the same time, steps to bring the NHL back to
Connecticut. Howard and
his staff had contacted your Club in the hope of getting our support
for his endeavors. He is
in the process of seeking to rebrand Hartford Hockey as the Connecticut
Whalers. We are on
board whole heartedly. As
everyone knows, the FanFest this past
weekend was a tremendous success.
The nearly 5,000 fans in attendance sent a big message to the
powers that be in Connecticut and the NHL.
Our Club, in support of the effort, had a presence on the
concourse of the event and the public warmly received us and thanked
us for our efforts over the past 13 years in keeping the Whaler name
out there and keeping the dream alive.
Next step, of course, will be increasing attendance at Hartford
Hockey games. This is
vital and our Club will do what we can to help make it happen.
Once our hockey team has been rebranded the Connecticut Whalers and our new hockey season started, we can all
make plans to attend the Whalers
Hockey Fest February 2011. Our
thanks to Howard and Karen Baldwin for all their efforts in helping
revitalize hockey in Hartford. Additionally,
we thank Howard for recognizing our Hartford
NHL Season Ticket Deposit program by putting our depositors at the
top of the list. When he
is successful in bringing NHL hockey back to Hartford our depositors
will have first choice of seat selection.
Howard Baldwin’s Connecticut Whalers will not be the only Whalers team
in the state. The
Danbury Whalers of the Federal Hockey League will take to the ice
on Friday October 29th at the Danbury Arena.
Prior to the formal announcement of the formation of the new
league, in December 2009, your Club was contacted by Herm Sorcher
(one of the owners) about how our Club would feel about having a team
named the Whalers and using their colors.
With written proposal in hand as to what we could do to help
each other be successful, Herm met with our Board of Directors and
discussed the particulars. In
exchange for our support, we were given a presence on their website
and they would use their contacts to support our endeavors (trips, etc…),
a table on their concourse to gather signatures and sell merchandise,
two season tickets to be used at our discretion (they will be raffled
at the opening game on October 29th), at least one Hartford
Whalers Booster Club Night and possibly more, and support of our
fundraising efforts. For
our part, they have a presence on our website and we let our club
members know of events they sponsor.
The association we have with the Danbury Whalers almost makes
us feel like the one we had with the Hartford Whalers Hockey Club –
complete cooperation both ways.
Your Club has been busy over these past several years.
Of course, we have continued our Scholarship administered by
the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving; kept the Whaler name in the
public eye by attending various venues to collect signatures on our
petition to the legislature for a new building and at most of these
venues we were also allowed to sell Whaler merchandise in support of
our Club and some of the charities that the Whalers Hockey Club
supported – they include Rentschler Field before UCONN football
games, New Britain Rock Cats, Torrington Titans Baseball, Norwich
Connecticut Tigers Baseball, Keys to the City nightclub in New Haven,
Bolton Ice Palace for BCL high school hockey games, Quinnipiac
University for Whalers Day tribute, and Joe Wysocki has taken it upon
himself to set-up signings in front of many area businesses and
volunteering his time to gather many signatures; continued the
tradition started by Brad Gilchrist of having a yearly get-together on
April 13th – the FANniversary of the last time our team
took to the ice; we have taken part in the Hartford St. Patrick Day’s
Parade as well as the Windsor Shad Derby Parade and look forward to
continuing our participation in the future; continue to sponsor trips
to National Hockey League games for very reasonable prices – this
hockey season will find us attending games in Boston (October), New
Jersey (November), Long Island (January) and Montreal (weekend in
March); our Club has been at legislative meetings in support of
Connecticut’s attempt to create a Sports Authority Committee (a
sports authority can play a vital role in the funding of sports
facilities, i.e., Houston Texas Sports Authority was able to build a
major league baseball park, NFL football stadium, as well as an arena
and parking garage in their downtown); our Club has sent a letter to
CDA President Marie O’Brien with a copy to Governor Rell asking the
whereabouts of all the Hartford Whaler items which were in the Civic
Center that were removed and asking them to please protect these items
for the Whaler fans for future use when we get an NHL team back; a
letter was sent to Charles B. Wang, owner of the New York Islanders
Hockey Club, asking him to consider Hartford as a destination for his
team if he indeed intends to move it (along with the letter was sent a
video showing the enthusiasm that Connecticut people have for NHL
hockey and the Whalers in particular -- video was assembled by Kevin
Massicotte who as you know has been chronicling your Club’s efforts
over these past several years in his documentary film Bleeding
Green); we have had a presence in all forms of media,
locally-nationally-internationally (Canada) – sports shows Jason
Page’s The Back Page, Cromwell
Free Radio (Carl Townsley and John
Ryan), Face the State hosted by Dennis House, Sports Ticket with Rich
Coppola on Fox, and we have provided quotes for many newspaper
articles including The Hartford
Courant, The New York Times,
Boston Globe, Meriden Record
Journal, to name a few; and, of course, our monthly meetings held
for the general membership of our Club.
Our meeting days have been changed from the second Monday of
the month to the second Tuesday of every month (there is no meeting in
either July or August).
August 9th found the Club having their biannual elections for
positions on the Board of Directors.
I want to congratulate the winners:
Martin Evtushek, President
Joe Wysocki, Vice President
Herman Munill, Treasurer
Joanne Cortesa, Secretary and Membership
Coordinator
Ken Atkinson, Website Coordinator
(Alan Victor, Immediate Past President)
Two new positions have been added to the Board.
They are Members At Large and elected were:
Terry Battle
Dave Laczynski
I hope you will give the new Board the same cooperation and enthusiasm
that I have received during my tenure as President.
It has been both an honor and pleasure to serve the Club.
This is my last message to you as President of your Club.
It has been an honor to represent everyone in all the things we
got involved in over the past six years.
I sincerely thank everyone for the support they have shown in
what we have been trying to do. While
I will no longer be President, I will not be going away.
As Immediate Past President, I will continue to work on the
Board of Directors in whatever capacity is needed.
I will always keep the cause number one in my heart and on my
lips. I will be looking
for you at Connecticut Whaler
and Danbury Whaler games in
this coming season.
Al
