Congratulations to:

Metros' 2007 Missouri
State Champions:

Michael Sit
Nathaniel Schuyler
Scott Schuyler
Fran Whalen

and to Elizabeth
Whalen, Mikael
Whalen, Jeff Barbour
& Chris Owen for
skating your best at
the meet!!!!

And a big thanks to
Russ Owen for
helping run the meet!
Welcome to the 2009-10 Season
GO MATT GO!!!  
Plummer represents
US!Matt Plummer
continues his rise in long
track speed skating.
  

Matt represented the United
States at the 2007 World
Junior Long Track
Championships in Innsbruck
Austria.  Matt placed 10th in
the 500m race with a time of
37.43.  He skated in the
1500m and 3000m, where he
finished 24th & 47th.  In the
3200m teampursuit race, the
US team finished 8th with a
time of 4:14.92.  

Go to the links page for the
ISU website to see the
complete results of Matt's
championship effort.  

In January, Matt won three
events at 2007 US Junior
Long Track Championships.  
Actually, he didn't just win, he
dominated.  He won 3 of the 4
distances:
500M    1st       37.8   winning
by .5 seconds
1000M    1st    2:01.42
winning by .35s
3000M    3rd   4:22.49 behind
by .3s
5000M    1st    7:34.03
winning by 9.5s

See the news page for more
on Matt Plummer & Patrick
Meek.
QUEENY - SKATING OLD
SCHOOL STYLE!!!

Queeny Park and speed
skaitng on Tuesday
nights!!! Goes together like
mom and apple pie.  That's
right.  Where it all began
over 30 years ago.
Tuesdays night Metros
style!!!   

We like to see our alumni on
Tuesday, come back and
skating for a session or two
on us.  

Will adult club members fine
a new watering hole  - since
Hooters has closed -  for
post-workout elbow
bending?  The Village Bar is
still open.
2006 Live on the Levee News
HERE'S A NOTE FROM RUSS OWEN TO ALL CLUB
MEMBERS:

LIVE on the Levee was a huge success for the Metro
Speed Skating Club and I want to thank you once again
for your time and energy to this worthy cause.   It was a
success because the St. Louis Skating community united
and came together for the benefit of our skaters.  

So how big was this "huge" success?    

On Friday, we did gross sales of $17, 927.76 with $102.67
in tips.   The tip thing was new to us but by Saturday's
event, we upped the ante and people responded to your
"suggestions" and us simply saying THANK YOU on behalf
of our skaters.   Tripp was really into it.        

We thought things were crazy on Friday night.   Actually,
they were, but Saturday saw the rush for the brew.   Both
evenings started slowly but Friday's crowd started buying
about 6:30PM and kept up a steady build to the 8PM
concert.   Things started easing up just before the end of
the concert and during the fireworks display.  

Saturday was really slow for a much longer time but just
before the main concert started, people came in droves.   
By the end of the evening, we had total sales of, (are you
ready for this????), $22,354.05 with tips of $401.06.   

That is a two day sales total of $40,281.81.
Total tips equaled $503.73.  The Metro Club will receive
20% of total sales, less spoilage, etc. and the tips go
100% to the Club. So bottom line is that the club will
receive close to $8,000 from sales plus the tips.   That
amount is about 40% of our budget for ice time for a
season.   It helps us keep annual fees reasonable and
provide the necessary ice time for a quality program to
develop some of the top skaters in the nation.   

I can't thank you enough for your hard work.   The people
who we contracted with stated unequivocally, that we were
the hardest and best working group that they had helping
at the fair.   We knew that but it is nice to hear it and be
recognized.   Some of the people who helped out do not
have e-mail and I will contact them personally to share the
results of the event and thank them for their contribution.   

I am putting together an after-action-report and lessons
learned to improve things for next year.   I would welcome
your suggestions and ideas on what we can do to improve
the logistics and operations.   Please send them to me
and I'll consolidate the list and keep for next year.  

Thank you once again.   See you on the ice.  

Russ, we couldn't say it better than that.  To Russ
and every one else, thanks from Metros.    


Metros Speedskating Club
Katherine Ruetter wins sliver
medal!  
Katherine (left) wins 2
silvers and a bronze at a Salt
Lake City World Cup.  Go to the
skater's journal page or
www.katherinereutter.com  to
learn more about her great
skating & her 2010 Olympics!!!  
Kepka returns to St. Louis
as an Olympic bronze medalist!  
J.P. Kepka (second, right) is
welcomed back to St. Louis at
Lambert by (L-R) Harlan Kwiatek,
Ms. Shelby F. Pressler, &
Steven G.M.T. Thomas.
Are you ready to skate? COME JOIN THE FUN!
The 2009-10 season has started!  
It's easy to join the Metros Speedskating
club.  Go to the membership form page now!
 Print and mail or come by a rink!
Membership forms are emailed to each club member  upon
request or you can print a membership form off of this website
and mail it to us.  IF YOU ARE READING THIS PAGE AND
NEED A MEMBERSHIP FORM OR DIDN'T RECEIVE ONE,
EMAIL US.  SEE THE CONTACT PAGE FOR OUR EMAIL
ADDRESS OR SEND AN EMAIL TO:
metrosspeedskating@sbcglobal.net.  THANKS.  
2007 Live on the Levee - A Thanks From
Russ Owen!
It's over!!!   But just wait until next year!!!!

First, let me thank each of you for your unselfish help in making the two
days/evenings at LOL another fun and worthwhile fund raiser.   The two young
men that we coordinate with, Eddie Pohrer and David Hanon, continue to
praise and thank us for the great job we do.   Granted, they may tell all their
vendors the same thing but I'm taking it on face value that they are sincere
when they tell me that the Metro booth is by far the best to work with and do
an outstanding job of setting up, selling and managing the operation over the
two days of LOL.   They value our enthusiasm, organization and cooperation.   
It simply makes their job that much easier.   

Now for the results.   Bottom line, we did $17,738 total sales for the two days.   
Our projected cut will be something just less than $3,500 with the deduction
for open cases at the end and inventory adjustments.  

Friday was a slow night and a sparse crowd.   It rained twice, the band was
marginal and there was a Cardinal ball game.   We only sold $7,582 in
product.   The Arch steps were never close to half full.   

Saturday was better but not by much.   It was an urban band playing and there
was a large crowd but sales were only moderate.   We had total sales of
$10,156.   The LOL crew raised prices this year from $5 to $6 per beer.   Not
sure how much that affected things.

On the tip front we did OK relative to the sales.   The tip containers seemed to
help with laminated pictures of skaters but those who were persistant in asking
for tips really made a difference.  On Friday, we did very decent with tips
totaling $370.70.   Monica Schuyler  gets credit for the single largest "tip."   
Saturday's tips only amounted to $106.40.   That audience, even though
much larger in numbers, simply wasn't as responsive or as generous.      

I want to thank the people who came down on Friday and Saturday to help
set-up and a special thanks to everyone for sticking around to help with night
closeouts and the tear-down on Saturday.   With everyone's help, we were
able to close things up quickly and get out of there at a reasonable time.   

I want to give special thanks to Jay Reutter and his lovely wife, Beth, and of
course to Katherine.  In the spirit of the St. Louis skating community and not to
slight anyone for the great job you did because you know how hard you
worked and how much I appreciate your unselfish help but I just want to
highlight Jay's contribution.   Katherine was flying into Lambert from
Vancouver (training camp) for a week of rest and relaxation with friends and
family back home in Champaign before her season kicks off (like it really ever
stops).   Now, Jay and Beth could have just as easily driven all the way from
Champaign, pick up Katherine and headed back home.   But no, Jay had Beth
drop him off at LOL and he helped the entire night at the booth.   He was a big
help stocking and tracking inventory along with Tony and Dave.   He stayed to
the end helping clean up and return inventory.   It was a treat for us to have
Katherine stick around to just chat and get caught up.   I'm glad that Erin could
spend a little time with Katherine at the close.   Katherine, we look forward to
cheering you on in the coming years but especially at Vancouver in 2010.    

I have an umbrella that was left Friday night.   It has Barnes-Jewish Hospital on
it.  

So, once again, my sincerest thanks to a great crew.   If you have suggestions
for next year, please let me know.    

Thank you,

Russ

Great News!!!  Live on the Levee organize have contacted us about
participating in the 2007 events.  We filed our application in February and now
we know our dates: July 27 & July 28.

Like last year, we have requested not to participate in the Fair St. Louis (July
3 & 4). Live on the Levee takes place every Friday and Saturday,
beginning
that weekend, July 6 & &7,  
 and ending on August 3 & 4.

The bands during our fund raiser are:  Steel Pulse (July 27) and Musiq
Soulchild (July 28). The Arch grounds open at 6 p.m. & close at 10:00 p.m.
Volunteers are needed from a couple hours before the grounds open (to open
the booth) to a few hours after the grounds close (to do final inventory
accounting). If you can help, please contact Russ Owen or reply to the club's
email address: metrosspeedskating@sbcglobal.net. For an email link go to the
CONTACT page

As soon as the organizers have contacted us with more information, look for it
to be posted here.  For more information on the Fair and Live on the Levee,
go to www.celebratestlouis.org.

This is Metros' only fund raiser and everyone's participation is sincerely
appreciated.  Remember, this is the fund raising event for  abatement of your
annual activity fee.  Those who don't help are subject to the $150 activity fee
upon registration for the upcoming season.  
Ice workouts run in September through
March (check the calendar page for exact
dates and times):
Webster - Saturdays, 12:35 p.m. - 1:35 p.m. or              
12:40 p.m. to 1:40 p.m.
Hardee's Ice Plex (Chesterfield)  - Sundays afternoons
             times vary; see calendar page
Queeny - Tuesdays, 7:45 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.
Ice Zone at the Mills - Thursdays nights, 7:50 p.m.     
to 8:50 p.m.
Rink Phone numbers for directions or in
case of bad weather....
Webster - 314.963-5678, ext. 4
Hardee's Ice Plex (Chesterfield) - 636.537.4200, ext 0
Queeny - 314 615.8472
The Ice Zone at the Mills - 314.227.5288
HOT CORNER NEWS ALERT:

THE WEBSITE HAS BEEN UPDATED FOR THE
2009-10 SEASON.   THE LISTING OF ICE TIME
S
ON THE CALENDAR PAGE IS CURRENT AS OF
10.22.2009.   SEE YOU AT OUR NEXT WORKOUT!
ALL WORKOUT TIMES AT WEBSTER
NOW START AT 12:35 PM
CLUB  NEWS....
GREAT TIMES, UP TO 4 SESSIONS
PER WEEK, NEW BALANCED
SCHEDULE.
The most exciting news about this season is that we
will continue our four days of skating:  Saturday,
Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday!   Perfectly
balanced.  All start times are great - great rinks, get
fun for all ages.

New club members are welcomed.  Drop by any
workout.  The first session is on us.