Gentlemen:
It
has been a long time since I sent out an email blast, June of 2019 to
be exact. Last time we talked I was looking to pass the AOTM on to
others to manage and run, as I wanted to retire from running the
event. Things were going well but I needed to attend to my family. My
kids had become teenagers and I needed to spend more time
with them; just be present if nothing else. The AOTM was not allowing
me to do that, mentally or physically. It became evident by the fall of
2019 that I was not going to be able to pass on the AOTM. I tried to
figure ways to modify the AOTM that could maybe fit my situation. I
labored over the ideas for months then Covid hit. It was a hard
decision, but I came to the conclusion a few months ago that AOTM’s time
was
done. Over the next few months I will be closing down the official
organization. If I were to do anything like the AOTM again I would do
it as a parish event.
I would like to thank the many people who have helped make AOTM possible over the many years:
-First to my wife Janene who has stood by me through all the trials of AOTM over the years.
-Thanks
to my friend and co-founder DJ Simerson who passed away this
September. DJ helped me get the AOTM going and came up with the name
for our group. He was a good friend and confidant through the
years. God bless you DJ and may you rest in
peace!
-Thanks
to my friend Josh Teske who has been a reliable friend and help. When
everyone else was gone or there was a crisis, Josh was always there to
step
in.
----Thank
you, Father Echert and St. Augustine/Holy Trinity staff for all their
help and support over the years. Especially the support of Father
Echert. You gave us a shot when no one else would. Could not have done
this without your help and
support.
-Thanks Fr. Brenna and the priests at All Saints for your years of service, offering Holy Mass at the AOTM. God bless!
-This
leads me to another point. I would really like to thank, in a special
way, a core group of AOTM speakers/moderators:Father Echert, David
Deavel, Dr. Steve Moore, Michael Olson, Michael Matt, and Josh Teske.
-These
men managed debates, were moderators, would step in as
speakers/debaters and would fill in when other speakers/debaters would
drop out at the last
moment!
God Bless you Gentlemen for all your efforts!
It
is not easy to come in and sit in the hot seat at the last moment,
however, moderating proved to be more difficult than doing the debate
itself many a
time!
-And
a special shout out to Michael Matt, Carol Matt, Walter Matt and The
Remnant team for all the help in making contacts with speakers,
assisting in their travel logistics and advertising for the event. It
was a great pleasure doing
all the videos and interviews over the years! Thank you for all your
encouragement and support. It was good getting to know you all!
-A special thanks to Dale Ahlquist and the late Dr. Pence, for all their support over the years, especially in the beginning.
They
were "AOTM when AOTM wasn’t cool,” as Dr. Pence used to say. Always
willing to come in and defend their positions against any crowd. Thank
you, Dale for your courage and helpful support all these
years. May God give you eternal rest Dr. Pence and reward you for your
efforts.
-And then to all the countless volunteers who came on a regular basis to help set up, tear down, cook and feed the masses!
In
particular Colin Cain and David Dvorak who coordinated many logistics
with the parish space, maintenance, outdoor/tent set-up, etc. And
special thanks to Jim Beers who always got the food in on Saturdays and
stuck around to do whatever was needed during the event! To Paul Sirba,
who would take charge of the kitchen in my stead, stayed so many nights
when all were gone to help me close up! He pretty much did whatever was
needed! God
bless you my friend! I would also like to remember Dan Knight who early
on helped me food prep and cook all the way through to the
event. Those were some long hours thanks for the work! We had other
cooks like Phil Vanner and cannot forget the Saturday prep crew,
sometimes set up by Peter Dahdah and others. Dan Millard our cigar guy
and all around volunteer! And who can forget the Doorman, Mr. John
Hastreiter! Great
guy! Can’t thank him enough for his service and reliability! You gave
me a great sense of peace of mind! And thanks Tim Garry, Mike Rosenthal
and Max Rosenthal for taking over as doorman the last season or two
when John retired. It was a last minute deal but you did great! I
can’t name everyone here but thank you all very much for the time and
effort! Thank you, my
friends!
-
And who can forget Dale Sherf and his team of bar tenders. Thanks
Dale, for creating a team that faithfully did the job so well and giving
me peace of mind! And bringing to the event some of the finest
beverages in the metro by way of Joe Dahdah, Peter Dahdah, Per Hansen,
Phil True, Samir and others! Great
job!
Special
thanks to all the men that volunteered your men’s group, Colin Cain
(St. Augustine) Jeff Lentsch (St Joe’s, West St. Paul), Michael O’Brien
(St. Charles Borromeo, New Brighten), Leo Pusateri and Ted Statz (St
Cloud men), Tom Balster ( with me since the Broiler in St. Paul) and
Kevin Mullally (St. Helena, S. Minneapolis), Tim Garry (St. Peter,
Forest Lake) and
Val’s group from the Catholic Defense league, Barry Bruss from Rochester and
the guys from LaCross. I really appreciate all the hard work you did
to rally your troops! Sometimes having to rally at the last minute. I
know it was not easy. Thanks so much and God Bless!
Hats
off to Joseph Kolles, DJ, Keith Carl, Paul Sellors, Walter Matt, Jeff
Davis and Dennis Becker for all your work with the media. Thank you so
much for your time and hard work! Paul you got us off the ground and did
a great job for so many years! Walt and Jeff, you filled in at the
last moment! Thanks for being there and being up
to the task! Joe, DJ and Keith I really appreciated all your help
getting things to work right, helping us upgrade and being so
dependable! Tech can be such a troublesome thing and you guys were
always up to the task of making it work! You really helped us pull off
some great things during the events and did some really nice
recordings! God Bless
Gents!
Thanks
to Dan Selner and Greg Selner who helped AOTM set up our webpage and was our
tech support with all internet media. Tech can be so great when it
works and so frustrating when it does not! So many times, these men
came through in the eleventh hour when things had to get out. Thanks
Dan and Greg for all your patience, time and
effort!
Big
thanks to Kelly Rowe and Stephen Kelly! These generous guys helped
AOTM set up as a nonprofit and have been my legal counsel over the
years. Even now Kelly is helping me wrap things up with the
AOTM. Thanks much for all your time and effort. Glad to have gotten to
know
you!
And
last of all thanks to John Sondag for convincing me to move AOTM from
the St. Clair Broiler to St. Helena which launched us into new
beginnings.
Without
the help of these and so many more generous volunteers (Sorry if I
missed anyone, please forgive me it is hard to get everyone) AOTM would
not have been a reality! Thank you so much for helping me make AOTM a
reality for 18 years of events (Broiler 2001, St. Helena 2002- Oct 2004
and St. Augustine Oct 2005-May
2019)
I
am very happy and fortunate to have worked with you all, come to know
you and made so many friends! May God Bless you all and may God keep
you!
Kent Wuchterl
P.S. My email kent@aotmclub.com is still my working email but this will be my last email blast.
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