Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/1063082
Happy New Year - we hope you have big plans to play a lot of tennis in 2019. The incoming tennis board is looking forward to a great year and include President Bob Walter; First Vice President Phil Hazelton; Second Vice President Jim Ball; Secretary Jeff Mulqueen; Treasurer Steve Schwartz. Please join us on Sat., Jan. 5 at 9 am at the South Clubhouse tennis courts for our first Saturday Morning of the Month Mixer. All tennis club members and residents are invited to play. Refreshments are provided and all levels of play are encouraged to come out and have some fun. Our Wednesday Evening Mixer is for tennis club members only and details will be posted at the South Clubhouse along with an email to all past and present members. It is time to sign up for the club for 2019, you may drop off your dues at the South Clubhouse or attend Activities Day. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to join this great club. ~ Lori Tennis Table Tennis/Ping Pong We play Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 4 to 6 pm, and Sat., 10 am to 12 noon in the Main Clubhouse Ballroom (normally). See the Events Board across from the Main Clubhouse Reception Desk for more information. You can also check on-line at www.sunlakescc.com and click on "Recreation" then click on "Classes," and finally click on "Table Tennis Group." Laced tennis shoes required — no exceptions! Info., Bruno, 797-0357. MEET THE PLAYERS: This month our featured player is Karl Tasko. By Carol Tasko Karl was born on March 29, 1930, in Bekesszentandras, Hungary. In 1956 he escaped communist Hungary during the revolt and fled to Salzburg, Austria, with the clothes on his back. In Salzburg he was sponsored to come to America by Babcock & Wilcox, an engineering company in Barberton, Ohio, and was paid $1 an hour. Karl says he would have worked for 50 cents an hour to be in America. From there he landed a job in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1961, where he met me, his wife of 57 years. I was his nurse in the hospital and we married three months later, and had two children, Leanne and Karl Jr. He went to night school and took English and civics in preparing for citizenship. He became a citizen on Dec. 21, 1965. We moved to Denver, Colorado, where he worked for Martin Marietta as a mechanical engineer, working on many security projects, like the MX missiles. We moved to Sun Lakes in 1989 and he took up tennis, which he hadn't played since college. After years of tennis, he found paddle (POP) tennis and still plays at the age of 88 years young. He loves all his friends. Karl has done many volunteer projects, like ChildHelp, building fences for the gardens with his friends from the Garden Club. He grew vegetables for the needy at Dysart Park. He built two podiums for the Clubhouse, built a bookcase for the Tennis Club. He loves to help others. In 1956 Karl says he never dreamed he would end up in such a beautiful place like Sun Lakes. Karl is well known by many Sun Lakers, but what you may not know is that he plays POP. On our scheduled days of play – Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 8 am, and Sundays at 8 am, when possible, Karl is on the courts, happy to be up and about, getting some sunshine and exercise and seeing friends. Just one of our club's octogenarians, he is an such an inspiration. Thanks, Karl. Need more information? Contact Suzanne at 205-9588 or Jeanne at 845-8817, or check out the bulletin board at the courts. | SUN LAKES LIFESTYLES | JANUARY 2019 | 59