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Mike Clayton Enters Hall of Fame
As announced in February, we will be implementing the North Penn Squires Hall of Fame in 2006. The first class admitted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony next fall will be all the founders of this organization: Tony Grasso, Richard Hughes, Richard Lampitoc, Rocco Fiorello, George Mullican, Roger McBain, Lyle Cunningham, Ralph Guiliano, and Al Tuppence.
And in line with our tribute to our founders, the Hall of Fame will also feature people who came after our founders and greatly contributed to the growth of the Squires. In February, we presented Mr. Ray McKnight Sr., former President and football coach, with our first Lifetime Achievement Award.
At the April Basketball Banquet, we presented our second award to coach and basketball commissioner Mike Clayton. Mike became involved with the Squires back in 1990s and has been active in the basketball program ever since. He served as basketball commissioner up until last year and while he claims he's going to retire soon, he keeps coming back because he loves coaching youth sports so much.
Mike has coached Squires teams at every level, including many teams that won championships. More importantly, Mike personally and single-handedly kept the basketball program running during a time when most of the organization was focused on football. He not only dedicated hundreds of hours to the program as a Commisioner and coach but he loaned the organization the monetary funds needed to keep the program afloat during some very difficult financial times.
The inscription on the Lifetime Achievement Award: In recognition of your long-term dedication and extraordinary contributions to our Basketball Program: Mike Clayton, April 29, 2006. Thanks for everything Mike!
Hall of Fame to be Established in 2006
 |  | | Steve Cameron presents the first Lifetime Achievement Award to Ray McKnight Sr. | |
The North Penn Squires have a long, rich tradition. The Squires were founded by a proud group of men who decided to break off from the existing youth football organization in the North Penn area to form a new organization, an organization that would be smaller and more focused on the ideals of teaching youth the proper skills to compete and enjoy the sport. But just as important as the sport itself was that they wanted to encourage the values of good sportsmanship, teamwork, and respect for parents, coaches, teammates, referees, and opponents as well as to develop self respect and improve the self esteem of all participants.
As President of the NPAA, I take the ideals of our founding fathers very seriously. We are all stewards of what those men set up over 30 years ago. And I believe it is critically important that we never lose sight of these ideals. For that reason, in 2006, we will be implementing the North Penn Squires Hall of Fame. And the first class admitted into the Hall of Fame at a ceremony next fall will be all the founders of this organization. Richard Hughes, Richard Lampitoc, Rocco Fiorello, George Mullican, Roger McBain, Lyle Cunningham, Ralph Guiliano, Al Tuppence, and Anthony Grasso. We will formally honor all the Founders during the football season in 2006.
And in line with our tribute to our Founders, the Hall of Fame will also feature a section for people who came after our founders and greatly contributed to the growth of the Squires. And in some cases, that contribution may even extend to today. And that is the case for our first Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. This man became involved with the Squires back in 1989 and was very active with the organization through 1997. He served as VP in 1994 and was President from 1995 to 1997. During that time he was involved with the expansion of the Squires building and installed the sheds that still stand today as storage for our equipment. He was a coach during this time as well with a number of teams and his 105 pound team won the KSL Championship in 1995. He instilled the ideals of the Squires in his children and his son is very active with us today as our Equipment Manager and a 145 lb coach this past season. And he continues to pitch in today when needed. His expertise last season in fitting helmets on all 100 players was very much appreciated and he continues to be a source of advice for many throughout the organization. Congratulations from everyone at the NPAA to our first Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Mr. Ray McKnight, Sr.
We look forward to our Hall of Fame ceremony during the upcoming football season.
Steve Cameron
President
Parents Update April/May 2006
CHEERLEADING IS COMING BACK
Thanks to the efforts of John Pettinato and others, we are fully committed to reviving our cheering program in 2006. It is critical to the long-term success of our program to have a fully engaged program for girls aged 5 to 15. Understandably, many families with both boys and girls depend on the two programsfootball and cheeringfor their children. Not to mention that cheering adds excitement to our football games and completes the Squires family atmosphere. We look forward to an excellent program in 2006.
CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP
The local businesses that sponsored the Squires in 2005 enabled our organization to improve in a number of ways. We now have a well-rounded program that not only helps the organization financially but also provides great advertising opportunities for our sponsors among the growing number of North Penn Squires families.
And we need your help to bring more sponsors into the program in 2006. Please consider asking the businesses that you frequent whether they would consider sponsoring the Squires. We have a full color brochure to aid in your discussions.
CONSIDER STEPPING UP IN 2006
Let us know what you think about all the happenings related to the Squires. In order to continue growing the organization, we need help from many people. Please consider taking a more active role in 2006-07. Tell us what you can do to help make our organization better.
And thanks for your continued support!
Parents Update Jan/Feb 2006
WERE MAKING GOOD PROGRESS
Its been a couple of months since the end of our football season; and our basketball season is now well under way. Were proud to report that overall basketball registrations are up over 30% from last year, we have implemented a new Saturday morning Instructional Program for 6 and 7 year olds, and introduced a 12-year-old travel team that competes against the best teams in the area in that age group. We believe that these and other changes will help the Squires grow for years to come.
Were also pleased to report that our financial difficulties are behind us. Thanks to the generous financial support from parents, board members, and sponsors from throughout the North Penn area, weve purchased much needed equipment and uniforms, improved our facilities, and eliminated our significant debt entirely.
Due to the improved financial situation, we are able to offer our kids such amenities as free Squires t-shirts for all our football players, new basketball-style shirts for all our competitive leagues, electronic scoreboards at all our basketball games, an improved banquet featuring top-notch trophies, full-color yearbook, and coaches appreciation awards. And in the future, youll see even more improvements as the organization continues to grow.
CHANGE IN FOOTBALL LEAGUES
The past year has been filled with both highlights and challenges for our organization, but through it all, we have continued to improve and make the necessary changes to position our organization for future growth and development.
One of those changes is the vote by the NPAAs Board of Directors in December to move back to the Keystone State League (KSL) for 2006, the league in which we were a member for over 30 years prior to 2005. This decision came as a result of parent discussions, a committee evaluation of available options, and considerable debate. In the end, it was felt that their divisional structure, preferable age and weight combinations, and reduced travel distances made KSL the best long-term solution for the North Penn Squires.
WE NEED YOUR INVOLVEMENT!
Let us know what you think about all the happenings related to the Squires. We want you to be as involved as possible and welcome any opportunity to discuss football, basketball, cheerleading, or any aspect of our organization. It is through this dialogue with parents like you that we will continue to grow the organization and make it better. If you would like to take a more active role, just let us know.
And thanks for your continued support!
Squires Raise Almost $700 for Hurricane Victims
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"Ribs for Relief" was spearheaded by George and Claudia Wright (back row) and they are joined here by players who just completed licking the sauce off their fingers (left to right) Jarrod Balch, Mario Wright, Corey Rogers, Alex Geistdorfer, and Kris Akins.
The North Penn Athletic Association is proud to announce that they have donated $664 to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund of the American Red Cross from money raised during the Squires home opening weekend on September 10 and 11. During the five games over the two days, the NPAA sponsored "Ribs for Relief" at their snack bar in which parents, players, and fans enjoyed special "Chicago-style ribs" prepared by Athletic Director George Wright and featuring his wife Claudia's secret BBQ sauce. In addition, the NPAA donated all profits from their 50/50 raffles held during each game to the victims of the nation's worst natural disaster. Thanks to George and Claudia for their generosity in sponsoring this event for the NPAA.
The Squires would also like to thank the Norchester Red Knights, the weekend's opponent, for their 50/50 donations and participation in "Ribs for Relief."
Parents Update--August 2005
Welcome to another season of exciting North Penn Squires football! We appreciate your support of our organization. We intend to make this 2005 campaign, our first in the Bert Bell League, a great experience for all kids and parents.
Bert Bell League
As many of you know, we have joined the Bert Bell League and will be participating with their football teams for the first time this year. We made this move because we believe their overall organization, the caliber of teams we will be playing, and the quality of the facilities that we will be traveling to will be greatly improved from what we are used to. While this is a dramatic change for us, we feel it will be a very positive one.
Financial Situation
You may have heard or read about the unfortunate situation with our organizations finances in which we have found a substantial portion of our budget missing. The Upper Gwynedd Police are currently investigating and we have put in a claim with our insurance company. Because of this, our financial situation will be rectified shortly and we will have operations as usual during this fiscal year.
New Financial Policy
As a result, we have implemented new financial policies with additional checks and balances in place. In addition, we will be
conducting an independent audit of our financial records on an annual basis.
Getting Involved
As parents, we know how many activities compete for your time. We want the North Penn Squires to be rewarding for not only the kids playing in our programs, but for the parents as well. We want you to become involved, whether it is in becoming an officer of the organization, coaching, being a Team Mom/Dad, working in our Snack Bar, or helping improve our facilities and fields. Theres a myriad of activities that could benefit from the many varied skills that all you parents possess. Please get involved. Let us know how you can help.
Monthly Meetings
The North Penn Athletic Association meets monthly to discuss issues and report on our various activities. As a registered parent, you are automatically an associate member of the organization and can attend the meetings. Because raising money is paramount to our success as an organization, we require voting members of the organization to either donate, raise, or provide materials valued at $250. Executive officers are required to donate, raise, or provide materials at the $500 level. This has already proven to be a very effective way to kick our finances into high gear given that we have already raised this year around $10,000 through financial contributions, corporate sponsorships, and materials and services donations. And that number will continue to grow.
Our meeting schedule is available on our Web site and we encourage you to attend these important monthly meetings.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
We want you to be informed about all details of our organization, from our overall strategy down to the game schedule and driving directions. We will try to keep you informed on a regular basis about all these details, but if you are wondering about something, please ask. Our main vehicle for communication is this Web site. Please check back here frequently.
In addition, as officers, we are accessible during practices and games, by phone, or by e-mail. Please let us know what suggestions you may have for improvements.
Lets Play Football!
Together, lets make 2005 our best season yet Thanks again for your participation and ongoing support!
Parents Update: September 2005
We feel that it is important to keep everyone who is involved with the North Penn Squires as up to date as possible. We have stepped up our communications efforts this year to let you know about the many positive things and even the less positive things that affect the organization. As direct contributors to the organization, through your sports involvement, your volunteerism, and your financial support, you have every right to expect to be well informed about our activities.
This update is about an unfortunate chapter in our history that we hope is coming to an end.
Missing Funds
As we reported before, when the new officers of the NPAA took over in April, we noticed accounting discrepancies in the financial reporting over the past year or so. We turned our records over to an independent auditor who then filed a report with the Upper Gwynedd Police. Since that time, the Upper Gwynedd Police, working with the Montgomery District Attorneys Office, has investigated the findings. This investigation has led to an arrest for theft of the missing money. Details of the case are being handled through the District Attorneys Office, and it is not our place to comment on them at this time. You can review the DAs web site for more details.
What We Are Doing
At Mays Board of Directors meeting, the Executive Board proposed changes to the NPAA Bylaws to ensure that this situation does not occur again.
--We implemented a more stringent financial policy which includes checks and balances and provides more complete financial reporting.
--We committed the organization to conducting an independent audit of our financial records on an annual basis.
We also implemented a multi-faceted approach to improving our financial situation.
--We revised our membership policy to focus more effort on raising money for the organization.
--We created a full year budget to reflect both expected revenues and expenses in all areas of the organization. It is our intention to follow this budget as any business would do.
--We revitalized our Corporate Sponsorship program and have raised a significant amount of money since May to support our ongoing operations.
Monthly Meetings
The North Penn Athletic Association meets monthly to discuss issues and report on our various activities. As a registered parent, you are automatically an associate member of the organization and can attend the meetings. As part of our new membership policy, we require voting members of the organization to either donate, raise, or provide materials valued at $250. Executive officers are required to donate, raise, or provide materials at the $500 level.
This has already proven to be a very effective way to kick our finances into high gear given that we have already raised more than $10,000 through financial contributions, corporate sponsorships, and materials and services donations. And that number will continue to grow each week.
Our next meeting is on Monday, October 3. We encourage you to get involved with these monthly meetings.
New Web Site Address
We have recently revised our Web site address to make it easier for all parents to remember. You can access the latest information at:
http://www.northpennsquires.com
Lets Play Football!
Good luck to all teams during our first Bert Bell League season. Any questions, please let us know. Thanks to everyone for your participation and ongoing support!
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Check Out Our Sponsors
Our sponsors are playing an increasingly important role in the success of the North Penn Squires. Thanks to their financial support and the services they provide, our teams and our facilities are better than ever. They are all very important to us.
Our sponsors range from the best local restaurants and bars to building contractors to landscapers to financial planners and many other businesses. This growing list of sponsors provide the area's best products and services.
Please provide them with any personal business you can. Click here to see all of this year's sponsors.
"Better Sportsmen Today...Better Citizens Tomorrow."
The North Penn Athletic Association is dedicated to providing the boys and girls of the North Penn and surrounding areas a chance to play basketball, football and lead cheers. We have been established for over 30 years. We believe that helping children grow athletically, will assist them in growing academically which will then in turn help them grow into the men and women of our community.
We dedicate ourselves to ensure that each child is given an experience like no other. We offer the best facilities and the best instruction. We believe participation in the sports that we provide to all boys and girls aid in their youth development. We strive to provide our children with a beneficial exposure to the principles of teamwork and sportsmanship.
email address: npaasports@hotmail.com
Another of our Valued Sponsors
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