Bridge Building in September

Our annual breakfast will once again be held at the Tacoma Sheraton, although they have now changed their name to Hotel Murano. Our secondary goal this year as always is to start at 7:30 a.m. and finish at 8:30 a.m. Our major goal is to start your day off with a smile, a warm feeling, and a great attitude.

Our theme this year is Bridges. This seems like a natural. Living in Tacoma, almost daily, we see the Narrows Bridge, the Murray Morgan Bridge, and the ballerina bridge over the Thea Foss Waterway. But in our wonderful community, we also experience connections, partnerships, friendships, and helping hands that are bridges of learning and understanding.

Last year our speaker was comedian and motivational speaker Debbie Wooten. Wow, did you do a great job! This year she will still be involved (after all she is a TACID board member) in both planning and in the program itself.

Our speaker this year is Al Foxx. Al is a professional humorist, inspirational/motivational disability speaker, and author. After experiencing a brain injury from a motorcycle crash over 25 years ago, which has caused him to be partially paralyzed and have a slight speech impediment, Al's learned many things the hard way. Through these experiences Al has gained insights and learned principles regarding living with a disability that he shares with audiences nationwide.

Doctors told him he'd never walk, talk understandably, or drive. Al met these challenges head on (so to speak). They changed him from ordinary to extra ordinary. Today he drives to his speaking engagements, limps unto the stage, and gets paid to share his humorous insights with people who begin to see their own situations in a new light. Suddenly they see hope in their own possibilities.

Al will be available to autograph copies of his book No Limits, which he will offer for sale with $3.00 per book going to TACID.

Our Brain Injury Support Group is one of our largest and most active organizations within TACID. Brain injuries range from Traumatic Brain Injury (sports and automobile accidents) to Acquired Brain Injury (strokes and infections).

Last September we had success with both our raffle and our limited auction. We hope to repeat those successes as well. We are still collecting prizes for a raffle and the auction, but we haven't decided what goes were, yet. We are still looking at donations for both. Here are some examples of what we already have.

Reading On the Park Bench - This print captures the romantic allure of a moment in time stolen for the imagination and represents a bridge to learning. This is a print from an original painting by Sally Rosenbaum of a young woman lost in thought as she reads a book in the sun on a park bench. Sally Rosenbaum is a Napa Valley, California, impressionist. The print is on beautiful Somerset velvet watercolor paper and measures approximately 11.5 x 15 on 13 x 19 paper. The print is signed and numbered by the artist Sally Rosenbaum.

The Tacoma Dragon Boat Association has donated a team building experience. Their motto is fun, fitness, and fellowship for people who love being outdoors.

We also have a machine lithograph of a photograph by Christopher Boswell. He is an accomplished Painter, Writer, Photographer, and Designer. His work has sold everywhere from fairs and festivals, to one man shows. He has been lucky to have frame and gift shops carry products in the Pacific Northwest for the last 6 years. A winner of local and international awards, and most recently has had his landscape work published in Nature Photographer Magazine's Spring Issue, also his article Lightning Hunter was published in the February Zine at EBSQart.com. In Tacoma you can find his work represented at the Freighthouse Square Gallery. Christopher has a unique perspective and ability to compose and create works of art.

Perennial trailblazers whose electrifying Bakersfield sound topped the country charts for most of the ’60s, Buck Owens and the Buckaroos plowed even newer ground with the 1971 album Bridge Over Troubled Water. Bridge finds Buck and the boys giving a big thumbs-up to the thoughtful folk-rock sound of Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and Donovan. Bridge had heavy chart action, justifying Buck Owens’ desire to roll with the times while also detailing his conversion from chart-topping country artist to Country Music Hall Of Fame shoo-in. We like to think that perhaps it was the Narrows Bridge Buck was thinking of because of his time spent here playing in local honky tonks bridging venue styles and fans.

Most Judds records exhibited an acoustic bias and a penchant for star guests that included the Jordanaires on "Don't Be Cruel," Emmylou Harris on "The Sweetest Gift," Mark Knopfler on his "Water of Love" and Bonnie Raitt playing slide guitar on the album Love Can Build a Bridge. In 1988, the pair became the first female country act to found their own booking agency (Pro-Tours), but a chronic hepatitis infection forced Naomi to retire from the concert stage two years later. This is a very collectable piece of memorabilia from the Love Can Build a Bridge Tour in 1990.

First Edition (1993) of Love Can Build a Bridge by Naomi Judd. Naomi, the elder half of country music's superstar mother-daughter duo The Judds, spins the lyrics of their hit song into a sentimental picture book about the ripple effect of love and good deeds. Each verse/ stanza speaks of making sacrifices in the name of love ("I'd gladly walk across the desert with no shoes upon my feet./ To share with you the last bite/ of bread I had to eat").

Other possibilities:

Boat Trip Around the Sound and Under the Narrows Bridge with lunch and wine for six

Hal Blaine Autographed & Framed Drum Head – Most Prolific Recorded Drummer in the World – Drummer on 150+ Top Ten Hits like: Pretty Woman, Good Vibrations, These Boots Were Made for Walking, He's a Rebel, Help Me Rhonda, Mr. Tambourine Man, Monday Monday, Return to Sender, Surfin USA, Surf City, Califnornia Dreaming, Da Doo Ron Ron, Strangers in the Night, AND Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Blue vinyl Promotional 7 Inch record by Elvis Presley of Bridge Over Troubled Waters. This was recorded live in 1972. Even Paul Simon loved the Elvis version of Troubled Waters. The flip side of the record is Lawdy Miss Clawdy.

If you would like to attend Bridges on September 23, 2008 at 7:30 a.m. Please, give us a call (253-565-9000) and let us know you are interested, so we can have a table captain arrange seating and breakfast for you. Thank you.