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The East Portal Bocce Club's 2023 Friendship Tournament was once again a BLAST. Out of respect for the recent passing of Tony Bennett we nicknamed it the Tony Bennett Memorial Tournament. And once again my teammates carried me through most of our games. But I did have 2 solid games out of the 5 we played and we won our first 4. But unfortunately we wilted in the 108 degree heat and lost the most important game, the last one. For the second year in a row I wound up with a second place silver medal. Disappointing but boy did we have FUN!

It's been almost a year since my last post. How do I know? The summer youth camp is back along with our Senior Day Trippers. Smiling faces on all 5 courts.

But the big news is that the 2023 Bocce Nationals held at the Highwood Bocce Club in Highwood, IL has just concluded with Team Forza (the Bernardi Family from Pleasanton, CA) taking home the gold in Open A play. Equally exciting for me was discovering The Bocce Broadcast Network which streamed the tournament live. When I clicked on the stream they had just started covering the match between my home team East Portal (Emi Fujii, Mike Wolff, Michelle Vitale and Lisa Watson) and Highwood ABC. East Portal smoked Highwood 12-6. What a great introduction to streaming Bocce.

This summer a youth day camp has had access to the East Portal Bocce Club as part of their daily fun routine. Last week the Club put out the word to members that volunteers were needed to assist at the camp and I signed up for a morning session. I was assigned to a group of 8 year olds who have been playing bocce all summer and who have progressed nicely. We split up into teams and my team consisted of 2 young ladies I'll call Luna and Sami. They were playing exceptionally well and I'm thinking we've got 2 future stars and I started channeling my Richard Williams "I gots two!" when Luna, just before her last roll, says, "Boy I'm glad this is over so we can go do what we really want and that's play in the playground."

My brilliant teammates survived my poor play to earn the silver medal at today's festive and challenging Friendship Bocce Ball Tournament hosted by Sacramento's 2004 US Bocce Federation National Champions, the East Portal Bocce Club. Ten teams , comprised of amateur and professional players ranging in ages between 10 and 80 years young enjoyed spirited competition and hard-fought games. Thanks to the perseverance of my team-mates Mark, April and Chris we giddily accepted our second place medals. BOCCE! A sport for all ages.

If you would like to find a Senior Companion Program near you go to the following link.  americorps.gov/serve/americorps-seniors/americorps-seniors-pathfinder .    Click on that link and then part way down on the first page there is a "Filter" link. Click on that and then enter the State and County you wish to explore. Voila you're right where you want to be.

Kristine talked about being in hospice and the constant feeling of despair associated with it. “But then”, she said, “a little ray of sunshine broke through the clouds when I found the Senior Companion Program.”

“That ray of sunshine”, she continued, “grew into a beautiful sunny day when Thomas introduced me to bocce.” She pointed to me as she said this.

She then gave a brief description of the game before talking about her most recent game with Thomas. Before continuing she turned to me, gave me an impish smile and then turned back to the audience (who had been hanging on to her every word) and told the predominately female audience (including 15 nuns and Sister MHW) that on her last roll...and I quote...”I really busted Thomas' balls!”

I was stunned and mortified because as a graduate of a Catholic grade school I knew better than to use such language in front of nuns. I stared at Kristine as she radiantly smiled at her audience which had burst out into raucous laughter before standing and loudly clapping. Yes, even Sister MHW.

Mark took that picture as she was walking off the stage and the Sacramento Senior Companion Program subsequently received all the necessary funding to continue serving 150 seniors a week with 33 dedicated volunteers.

I have often been asked about the picture of Kristine that appears at the end of my video. This marvelous photograph was taken by Mark Snaer, who captured a beaming Kristine immediately after she brought down the house with her own version of a TED talk. Here's how it came about. In 2018 the Sacramento Senior Companion Program hit a funding rough patch and was in danger of losing almost 30% of its funding. Management correctly decided to orchestrate a public show of support for the program and hopefully influence benefactors by hosting public gatherings at different community centers around the City. At these venues volunteers were encouraged to attend with one of their clients who would gladly and enthusiastically endorse the program. At the time I was seeing five clients a week and they all wanted to attend a session because they were passionate about the benefits of the program and wanted to help.